The Sadness Of Mistakes
by RavenTempestShadowhunter
Summary: Nico di Angelo is almost the most popular boy in eleventh grade at Goode High School. Thalia Grace hangs back in the shadows and lashes out at anyone who tries to come close to her. He knows she's hiding something. She just wants to be left alone. What happens when he starts getting closer to her? High School AU, Thalico, Percabeth. Rated for depressing themes in later chapters.
1. Prologue

******I don't own Percy Jackson.**

**Prologue**

He was Nico di Angelo, dark haired, dark eyed, always wearing black. He was bad with everyone: people, animals, everyone. He liked wearing black skinny jeans and black t-shirts, and people called him gothic, but he said that he wasn't because he didn't wear makeup. He didn't like gum or scarves, they annoyed him. He did like graveyards and blue cotton candy, but only blue. He couldn't explain it, but he hated any other kind of cotton candy. His friend Percy once tried to give him pink and he spit in Percy's face.

Her name was Thalia Grace, but she rarely told people her last name. She wore black skinny jeans and her favorite t-shirts were her "Death to Barbie" one and her Green Day one. She always wore a black hoodie, though sometimes she unzipped it. Her hair was black and spiky, but her eyes were electric blue. She knew that people found them creepy, so she wore lots of eyeliner and mascara to make them pop. She didn't speak to people, she wasn't a very good student, and she seemed to hate everyone.

He was willing to admit that he had no talent with girls. He hated it, his stuttering whenever a pretty girl even looked at him, but he couldn't help it. Every time he tried to talk to her, she spit out a sarcastic comment and walked away. Although he wasn't surprised. Girls never wanted to talk to him.

They went to Goode High School in Manhattan, where they both lived. Most of the students there were delinquents and idiots. No matter what people said, he wasn't one of them. They were both in eleventh grade. He was in the popular group, with Percy and Annabeth and their other friends. She was on the sidelines. Always on the sidelines.

Whenever someone tried to get close to her, she would push them away. So most people saw her as a piece of scenery, something to be overlooked. But he didn't. He knew that she had a secret. And he knew that someday he'd find out what it was.


	2. Utopia

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Utopia by Within Temptation**

**Chapter 1 – Utopia**

watch?v=P2tYn7kl-XU

She hugged her knees closer to her chest. It was cold here, but it was better than going back to her home. _No_, she thought, _it's not my home. It's the place where I live. _And she knew it wouldn't be for long. They never lasted long.

The city was growing dark, and the alley was already dark to begin with. She ignored the people walking by the entrance to the alley, just hoping they'd leave her alone.

"Thalia?" someone said. She looked up. A dark haired boy looked back at her. He was wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt with a skull-and-cross-bones on it. She pulled the sleeves of her hoodie down out of instinct.

"Do you stalk me?" she asked, putting poison into her words.

He shook his head stepping towards her. "What are you doing here?"

She lifted herself off the ground and looked at him. He was at least three inches taller than her. "Why do you care?"

"I do."

It was a simple answer, and she didn't like it. "I like it here."

He looked around at the dumpsters and spilled beer bottles, then looked back at her and raised his eyebrows. "What?" she demanded.

"You like it here?"

"Yes. Why is it your business, di Angelo?"

He shrugged. "Where do you live? I can drive you home."

She tried to take a step back and ran into the back wall of a building. "I'm fine. I don't need your help." she spat.

"What's your problem?" he asked, throwing his hands into the air.

"You."

"But it's not me. You can't seem to have a civilized conversation with anyone."

"People. I hate people."

He was silent for a minute. Then, "Why?"

She glared at him. "Because they ask nosy questions that I don't want to answer. I don't have to tell you any of my business."

"Why can't you just trust me? I just want to take you home. It's cold out here."

It was cold, but she refused to pull her hoodie tighter and give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right. "I'm fine. I can walk."

She began to walk out of the alley when he grabbed her arm.

He knew there was something wrong, and he wanted to help. "Thalia, I know it's not just that you don't like people. There's something else."

She stared at him for a few seconds, and when she spoke again she seemed calmer. "Everyone has secrets, di Angelo."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." He said, never looking away from her eyes.

She stared at him for a moment, then tore her arm out of his grasp. He looked at her. Then he began walking out of the alley.

She stood still for a few seconds, then turned. "Di Angelo." He stopped and looked at her. "You go first."

His lips slowly curved into a smile, and he stepped forward. She leaned against the wall of the alley, and he stood in front of her. "My mother's dead." he stated.

She just looked up at the sky without saying anything. Then: "I'm a foster kid."

"Is that why you don't trust people?"

She nodded and stopped leaning on the wall. "Happy? Now you can go tell all your little friends that I don't have parents, that you've figured me out. Great job, di Angelo."

He shook his head. "I won't do that." He walked closer and took her hand. "I know it's hard, not to have a family."

She laughed, and all her fury seemed to come out in one sound. "You know? You know? You don't know anything. All I've ever wanted is to have a family that actually wants me to be there, but you know what? That's just never going to happen. And you can find out all my secrets and hold my hand, but you'll never understand. You'll never know what it's like not to have a family. And when I leave, when I go somewhere else because my foster family can't handle me, you won't be there. You'll forget all about me. And I won't care."

"I know what it's like. My mother's dead, remember?"

"Right, your mom dies and suddenly you know what it's like not to have any family. You've still got a dad." She sounded like she was close to tears.

"Who works all the time and never has time for me."

"Boo hoo. You've got one. Get away from me, di Angelo." She tore away from him and began running.

"Please, Thalia, listen to me." She didn't stop. " Thalia, I'm sorry!"

She froze. The she turned. "When was the last time 'Sorry' helped you, di Angelo? When your mother died, did 'Sorry' bring her back? Don't say that. I hate that word."

"I won't say it again." He raised his hands in defense.

He was almost cute when he was afraid, she noticed. Then she mentally slapped herself. She didn't like him. She couldn't. Because no one would ever like her back. She was too broken.

She turned and began to walk out of the alley. "Bye, Nico."

It wasn't until she was gone that he realized she'd called him by his first name.

**I hope this is better than the prologue, which I realize is a bit boring. If this gets good reception, I'll continue it.**


	3. A Thousand Years

**I just realized that I skipped chapter 2, so here's chapter 2. I am so sorry about that. This comes before All I Need.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.**

**Chapter 2 – A Thousand Years  
****watch?v=ZIdjEzZGdVI**

They would pass each other in the hallway. Exchange glances, but never words. Nico's friends noticed, but didn't say anything. Sometimes Percy would smirk at him, and Nico would look away, pretending that he hadn't noticed. Then he'd go back to thinking about her.

She didn't have anyone to notice anything was different, but really nothing was. She was still sarcastic, she still snapped at teachers, she still ignored everyone. In her head, it was different. Instead of thinking about how much she hated everyone, she thought about him. She once thought maybe she was a bit harsh on him, but quickly pushed the thought out of her head. Life was harsh, the sooner he learned that, the better. God knew she'd learned it early enough.

They shared some classes. She always sat in the back, hoping the teacher wouldn't call on her. He sat nearer the middle. She watched him during the classes, although she denied it to herself. She wasn't _watching_ him, she was just…staring ahead and slightly to the right, exactly where he just so happened to be sitting. And she just so happened to be looking slightly up, so she could see his silky black hair that almost looked blue when the light hit it, and his incredibly pale skin, and the back of his black t-shirt with the tag hanging out, and…

What?

She didn't like him. She wouldn't admit it to herself. It didn't matter. Nobody wanted her. Nobody had ever wanted her. Especially not a teenage gothic boy who – she'd admit this – was slightly hot.

_Snap out of it_ he told himself. He tried to concentrate on what the French teacher was saying. But every time he tried, his thoughts wandered off.

She was a foster kid? Why didn't anyone know that? Why didn't she tell anyone?

_Why don't you tell anyone about your mom?_

Damn that little rational voice inside his head.

The bell rang, jolting him back to reality. He grabbed his French textbook and notebook and stuffed them into his backpack. It was lunch time.

"Hey Dead Boy." Percy greeted him.

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" Grover stood in front of them, and he would have been jumping up and down if it hadn't been for his crutches.

Nico laughed. "It's enchilada day, isn't it?"

"Yes! And they're going to be out if you don't get going!"

Percy laughed, too. "Alright, alright!" They began walking down to the cafeteria.

Nico hated the cafeteria. Their food was awful, and the ladies were mean. But it was a break from classes, which he welcomed. He grabbed a sandwich, a bag of chips, a chocolate chip cookie, and a soda, ignoring the lunch ladies' glares. Seriously, they were creepy sometimes. Like they wanted to eat him.

Annabeth was already sitting down at their usual table eating a salad and reading a book when Nico sat down. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Thalia sitting at a table alone, picking at a sandwich. His heart beat a tiny bit faster for a second, until Percy sat down next to him. "Hey, babe." Percy said, giving Annabeth a quick kiss. She smiled at him before going back to her book. Nico noticed it was in Greek.

"God, Annabeth, do you ever do anything but read?"

She glared at him. "Shut up, di Angelo. At least I'm passing my classes."

"Hey, I'm passing my classes." Nico said, unwrapping his sandwich.

Percy laughed. "Sure, and you're a straight C student. Congrats, man."

"Says the one failing English."

Annabeth looked up sharply, and began lecturing her boyfriend. Percy shot Nico his I-will-kill-you-later glare. Nico grinned.

Nico guessed Percy had conveniently forgotten to tell his girlfriend about his English grade. Oops.

Thalia watched them from a few tables over. Specifically Nico. Maybe she was ready to admit she liked him. Maybe. But to herself. She wouldn't tell anyone else.

But then she shook the thought away. She knew what love was like. She knew what had happened to her parents. She knew that every time she began to like a foster home, she was taken away. She knew that if she started trusting him, she'd fall. Just like always.

Watching him pick at the disgusting sandwich that she knew tasted like cardboard, she knew that there wasn't a chance. There wasn't a chance that he'd be different. Because they were all just people, in the end. And they'd all leave her.

The final bell rang, signaling the end of school. Nico watched Thalia pick up her bag and leave quickly. He followed at the same speed. He was determined to catch her this time.

He knew she would go to the alley again. He ran to find Bianca, his sister, and asked her to bring his bag home. She paused, then smiled and told him she would. She looked like she understood, but he didn't dwell on it.

"Thalia?" he called into the alley.

She looked up sharply. "What the hell, di Angelo?"

He picked his way towards her. "What do you mean?"

"I swear, you're stalking me. What do you want?"

"I just want to talk to you."

She shot him a poisonous look. "There, you've talked to me. Now go away."

He ignored her. It was amazing. She was sitting in a dark alley behind a disgusting restaurant, she was glaring at him, and yet she was still beautiful. _Damn it_, he thought, _I sound like a pathetic little girl_. Somehow, he didn't care.

"Thalia…" He trailed off. He didn't know how to do this. "I…I…"

"You what, di Angelo?"

He took a deep breath. "I like you." It wasn't as hard as he thought.

She just stared at him. Then she stood and walked away, without another word.

Time stood still. He wanted to scream. He wanted to do something violent. But he knew that he had to be brave. He wouldn't let her be taken away. He wasn't going to force her into liking him, but he wouldn't give up so easily. Besides, he was used to rejection. Especially from girls.

Two blocks away, Thalia curled up in a different alley, sobbing. She didn't want to hear that from him. It made it even harder. She admitted it now. She liked him, too. But she was afraid. She knew he would leave her. But hearing him tell her something like that, it made it even harder to know he would leave her. Because sometimes she wanted to just try it.

She didn't know how long she sat there. Finally she picked up her school bag and walked back to the place she was staying.

"Thalia? Are you alright?" Amy Moore asked, looking at her foster daughter in concern.

"Fuck off!" Thalia yelled, and ran up the stairs to her room.

The metal kept her grounded, reminded her that this was real. The silver metal tipped with red. It was her savior.

**Again, so sorry about skipping chapter 2. I am laughing at my stupidity as we speak.**


	4. All I Need

**So sorry, I skipped chapter 2. I had to delete this one and re-upload so that they would be in order. Again, so sorry.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or All I Need by Within Temptation.**

**Song: watch?v=tKJkgawDfEk**

"Nico!" his father said, snapping his fingers in front of Nico's face.

"What?" Nico looked up. They were all staring at him. "Sorry."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "He asked you how school was."

"Fine," Nico said, looking back at his plate. He didn't want to tell them about his classes, and especially not about his talk with Thalia after school.

"That's it?" Hades prompted, and Nico nodded.

Bianca smirked. "Why did I have to take your bag home today?"

Nico glared at her. "I had something to do."

Persephone grinned. "Something to do with a girl, perhaps?"

"It's none of your business!" Nico snapped at her. They sat in silence for a moment, then Nico stood up. He walked away to his room, closed the door, and lay down on the bed.

He really hated her sometimes. It wouldn't have been so bad if his mother had asked that. If his mother had been the one smiling at him and teasing him about girls. But she wasn't his mother. Persephone had no right to do the things his mother should do.

"That wasn't very nice." Bianca said, coming into his room.

"The door was closed."

"I know."

"You should have knocked."

"Oh well." She sat down on the bed next to him.

"It isn't her business," Nico said without looking at her.

Bianca shrugged. "She was just trying to be nice."

"She was trying to be our mother."

There was a pause. "Is that such a bad thing."

Nico sat up, staring at his sister. "Of course it's a bad thing!"

"Why?"

"Because she's not Mom!"

Bianca looked at him. "I know that. And I wish she wasn't here, too. I know she can't replace Mom. But she just asked if you were doing something with a girl."

He lay back down. "It's none of her business."

"But you were mean to her about it." Bianca began smoothing the hair around her younger brother's face.

"I don't care," he said.

"Dad does."

"She should go away. We were fine without her."

Bianca nodded. "We were. But Dad wasn't."

Nico closed his eyes. "I don't like her." He knew he sounded like a little kid. He didn't care.

"Nico, you scream at her every time she opens her mouth," Bianca pointed out. "It's pretty obvious you don't like her."

"Then she shouldn't talk to me."

Bianca stopped stroking his face and lay down next to him. "I feel the same way, sometimes. But Dad really cares about her."

Nico didn't answer. They lay in silence.

"Hey, Nico," Bianca said after a while.

He opened one eye to look at her.

"Was it because of a girl?"

He opened the other eye and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah."

"Aww, Nico's got a crush. Who is it?" Bianca's grin could rival a crocodile's.

"You know the new girl in my grade, Thalia?"

Bianca's grin was wiped off her face. "You like the goth girl?"

"Don't call her that. And yes."

"Why?"

"Because…because…I don't know. I just do."

Bianca sighed. "Just be careful, Nico. She's obviously unstable."

"So?"

"Do you know anything about her?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"What?"

He hesitated. "It's sort of private."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Tell me. I swear I won't tell anyone."

He glanced at her, but she was his sister. He had to trust her. "She's a foster kid."

"See? Be careful, Nico."

He rolled over and looked at her. "Promise."

She sat up. "Good. Wouldn't want my little brother getting hurt." She stood and walked out the door.

"Your little brother who's taller than you!" Nico called as the door closed behind her.

She stuffed her books into her locker and turned to see Nico laughing with his friends. She felt a pang of jealousy in her chest, but she ignored it. She didn't need friends.

But when she looked at him, she felt her breath catch in her throat. She rolled her eyes at herself. She sounded pathetic. Like a little lovesick girl.

She slammed the door to her locker, not caring about the stares directed at her at the sound. The hallway was filled with loud high school students gossiping about clothes and makeup and boyfriends and other thing Thalia didn't really care about. She couldn't wait for the day to be over. Unfortunately, it had just begun.

She groaned as she walked in and saw a substitute sitting at the desk. Greek was almost semi-enjoyable with Mr. Brunner, who taught them Greek mythology by making them act out the stories. Thalia fondly remembered the day they had to act out the Kronos myth; Brunner didn't cut out the part with Kronos eating his children, and watching them be puked back up was even more enjoyable.

But substitutes were always annoying. They talked to other teachers, and immediately labeled her "the problem child". She supposed she didn't help by making sarcastic comments and mouthing off to the sub. But she did that to everyone else, too. Of course, everyone else gave her detention. Just like the subs.

She resigned herself to sitting down in the back of the room. Maybe this time she could try to be nice. She was nice to Mr. Brunner. Of course, "nice" didn't mean much for her. Maybe she'd try not to get detention.

Nico came in, with all his friends. Another reason why Thalia liked Greek class: Annabeth answered all the other questions. She just had to sit in the back and look like she was paying attention. And she often noticed Nico doing the same thing. Percy, of course, had to sit by Annabeth in the front, so she could make sure he was paying attention. She refused to let her boyfriend do badly in any class. And Thalia knew about the failing English grade Percy had gotten.

Nico took the seat next to Thalia. She pretended not to notice him, but it was difficult. She could hear him breathing, see every time he shifted in his seat. She wanted to slap herself. She felt pathetic whenever she was near him.

"Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace," she heard the substitute call. She looked up, thinking the woman was yelling at them. But she was just reading off a piece of paper. She called a few more names, then put the paper down. "You can get started."

Thalia turned to see Nico looking expectantly at her. "Well? Which one should we choose?"

"What?" Thalia asked.

He laughed. "Weren't you paying attention?"

She glared at him. "When do I ever pay attention, di Angelo?"

"Touche," he said, shrugging. "We're supposed to make a skit of a Greek myth. Which one should we do?"

"I don't care," she replied, resting her head on her hand and leaning on the desk.

"That's not helpful."

She grinned. "But when am I helpful?"

He glared at her. "Come on, Thalia. We have to do this. Which myth should we choose?"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. How are we supposed to do this with only two people."

"We'll get there. How about the one when Hades kidnaps Persephone?"

Thalia snorted. "Only if you'll be Persephone."

"God, no. You're Persephone and I'm Hades."

"Keep dreaming, di Angelo."

"Fine, you come up with something."

She sighed. "Let's do the one with Artemis turning that guy into a deer."

He frowned. "When the guy gets eaten by his dogs because he sees her taking a bath?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding.

"You just want me to get killed."

"Thirty seconds to come up with a myth!" called the substitute.

"Fine, we'll do that one," Nico said. "What's the guy's name?"

"How should I know?"

"It was your idea!" Nico protested.

Thalia glared at him. "I just remember he was eaten. I don't care about his name."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You're impossible."

"Nico and Thalia? Do you have a myth?" the substitute interrupted them.

They looked at each other. "When Artemis turns a guy into a deer and his dogs eat him," Nico supplied.

"Do you have a name for this 'guy'?"

They looked at each other again and shook their heads.

The sub shook her head and moved on to the next person.

Nico's hand brushed Thalia's, and she stopped caring about other people's myths. Not that she'd cared in the first place. She mentally slapped herself. _You know he'll leave. You can't be with him._ She told herself. But her mind wouldn't listen to her brain, and somehow her fear started seeming less important.

She was only aware of the bell when Nico's hand went away and she realized everyone was leaving.

She checked her schedule and realized she had English next. She mentally groaned. English was one of her worst subjects, along with math and science. She stood up and walked out the door, making sure to glare at the teacher on her way out.

English was awful, as Thalia had expected. She didn't really pay attention, and got yelled at twice. Which was better than usual, but didn't stop Thalia from contemplating every way she could murder the teacher and fake it as a suicide.

Finally the day was over, and Thalia went down the hall to the detention room. She'd earned an hour in math when she called the teacher a bastard. She'd only muttered it, but apparently Mr Hendricks had owl ears, because he heard her and gave her an hour of detention after school for the next week.

Today, the detention room only had a few people, and Thalia recognized them all: they were regulars. Scribble, the red headed boy who scribbled on a piece of paper the entire time. Blue Girl, the girl with bright blue hair who Thalia hated because she acted very melodramatic when really there was nothing wrong. Red, the girl with frizzy red hair, paint covered pants, and a very rich daddy. The Monkeys, two boys with the same messy brown hair and cheeky smiles. And Space Cadet, the girl with dark brown hair who stared off into space and chewed her gum very loudly. Thalia took a desk near the back of the room. Blue Girl was typing furiously on her phone, and Thalia felt a pang of jealousy. She didn't have friends to text.

Then she mentally slapped herself again. She'd never felt this way. She'd never wanted friends, because she knew she didn't need them. She put her head in her hands. Nico was messing with her.

The hour crawled by. The only sounds were Scribble's pencil scratching the surface of his paper, Blue Girl's tapping on her phone, Space Cadet's gum chewing, and The Monkeys' whispers to each other. Sometimes The Monkeys would glance at her, and she would glare at them, and they would look away quickly and resume their whispering.

Finally it was over, and Thalia was the first one out the door. She ignored Red's protests as Thalia bumped into her trying to get out. But when she got out of the school, she stopped. She didn't want to go back to the foster home, but she didn't want to go to her alley, in case Nico was there.

Finally she decided to just go to the foster home, and lock herself in her room. It was better than running into Nico.

Which unfortunately was exactly what Nico wanted as he stood in the entrance to the alley, pacing back and forth. People were giving him strange looks as they passed, but he didn't care. He just wanted her to show up.

But she never did.

Eventually he walked home, ignored Persephone's cheerful hello and went to his room, slamming the door.

Why wouldn't she just trust him?

**The first three chapters and the prologue were all prewritten, so the fourth will probably take longer. I've been having a bit of trouble with it and I planned to finish the whole story before uploading any of it, but I didn't. So I'm now going to try and finish the fourth chapter ASAP. But I won't rush myself, because that could result in a bad chapter. Bye for now.**


	5. While You're Lips Are Still Red

**I do not own Percy Jackson or While Your Lips Are Still Red by Nightwish**

**Chapter 4 **–** While Your Lips Are Still Red  
****watch?v=9xJKI3Qu50U**

"Hey, Nico," Percy said as he sat down next to Nico in the cafeteria.

Nico hummed in response and took out his sandwich. It was peanut butter.

"Did you do the paper I gave you?" Annabeth asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Yes."

Annabeth gave him a look. "It's important, Percy. You can't fail English!"

"I know," Percy said in a voice that meant he just wanted her to stop talking.

Unfortunately, Annabeth picked up on that, and started lecturing him on how English was an important subject and failing it would be a major setback for his college career. Nico tuned out when she started in on him about how much the final paper would count for his grade.

"Hi, Nico." he heard, and he turned around.

"Hey, Rachel," he said.

She put her tray down, filled with the healthy things that she adored and Nico thought were relatively disgusting. "Do you want to go to the carnival with me this weekend?" she asked, biting into a piece of celery and looking at him.

He shook his head. "No, thanks, Rachel." It wasn't the first time she had asked him out. But he didn't want to tell her to get lost. She was a nice person, and he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

She made a face at the celery and put it back on her plate. "God, couldn't these people get better vegetables?"

Nico shrugged and looked back at his sandwich. He'd had time to make one this morning, after getting no sleep the night before. It was turkey.

"How about a movie on Friday?" Rachel tried again.

"Sorry, I can't."

"Why?" she asked, trying a piece of cucumber drenched in Italian dressing.

Nico thought fast. "Homework."

Rachel raised her eyebrows and ate another piece of cucumber. "You're doing homework on a Friday?"

_Damn, _he thought. Of course he wasn't doing homework on a Friday! "My dad heard that I failed the math test. He's making me do my homework before anything else." He mentally patted himself on the back. Good story.

"Oh," Rachel said, and she probably would have continued if the bell hadn't rung at that moment.

"I'll see you in art," Rachel said as she stood up and carried her lunch to the garbage. Nico picked up his sandwich and put it back in his bag. As he stood up to leave he noticed that Thalia's normal table had stayed empty the entire lunch period.

By the end of the day, Thalia had decided that school was invented simply to torture kids and teenagers. When the last bell rang, she bolted from her classroom, skipping detention and going down the hallway much slower than she would have liked. All the other people getting out of their classrooms were going much slower than her, talking and laughing. She saw a number of footballs flying through the air. She fought through them with her elbows, trying to get to the door.

Suddenly a hand grabbed her arm. She turned and saw Nico looking at her. "We need to talk."

She tore her arm out of his grip."No, we don't." She tore her arm out of his grip and began fighting her way down the hall again.

He took her arm again and pulled her towards the wall. "Thalia."

"What?" she demanded, pulling her arm away again.

"We need to talk," he said again.

"Then talk. And do it fast."

He shook his head. "Not here."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Go away, di Angelo." The crowd had mostly gone away, and she made her way down the hall without much difficulty.

She heard him calling her name, but she ignored him and pushed open the door.

She didn't think about where she was going, she just ran. Through the school parking lot, through the streets of Manhattan.

She wished he would leave her alone. She wished he would just go away. Everything was easy when she hated everyone. But she couldn't hate him. And she didn't want him to find her and tell her again that he liked her. Because she knew that he would leave, if she didn't leave first. She was a foster kid. These people wouldn't want her after a while. And then she'd be on to the next home. Leaving Nico behind.

She found herself in the alley again, facing a brick wall. She turned around and slid her back down the wall into a sitting position, with her knees tucked into her chest. Then she rested her head on her knees and sobbed.

Nico was walking out of the school parking lot when Bianca pulled up in her car. "Hey," she said.

He looked at her. "Hey. Can you take my bag?"

"Are you going to follow her again?" Bianca asked.

"Just take the bag."

She opened the door and got out of the car. "Nico, I told you. She isn't stable."

"I know, I heard you. Just take the bag." He tried to hand her his bag, but she wouldn't take it.

"No. Come on, we're going home."

Nico dropped his bag on the ground. "Fine. Don't take the bag. Bye." He ran off. He heard Bianca calling him, but he ignored her and ran out of the parking lot.

He ran out of the parking lot, and, knowing that Bianca would follow him, ran into a little alley behind the school. He looked behind him, and saw that Bianca was stopped outside the alley. But it was too narrow, and she couldn't get through it. He turned his head forward and continued running.

He ran through the streets of Manhattan. He wondered for a while how he looked to the people around him, a teenage boy wearing all black running through the dirtiest part of the city, but he stopped caring eventually. He had better things to worry about.

When he reached the entrance to the alley, he heard crying. He looked in and saw Thalia sitting at the end of the alley with her knees against her chest, sobbing. He walked towards her slowly, stepping over the pieces of garbage. He knelt beside her.

"Go away," she said. Her voice was muffled and broken from crying.

"No," he responded. He didn't touch her, just knelt beside her.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, the silence only broken by the sound of Thalia's quiet sobs. Then Nico spoke. "Look at me."

"Go away."

"I'm not leaving. What's wrong?"

She looked up at him. Her makeup was running down her cheeks and her eyes were bloodshot. But she still managed to glare at him effectively. "Fuck off, di Angelo."

"Not until you tell me what's wrong." He held her gaze.

_Damn_, she thought. _He's becoming immune to my death glares._

"Go to hell."

He didn't move.

She stood up, mopping the tears from her cheeks. "Will you just leave me alone? I don't need you! I don't want you! Just go away!"

He stood up, too. She hated that he was taller than her. "Why? You keep pushing me away, but you won't tell me why."

"Maybe I just don't want you to get close to me," she said, taking a step forward.

She was an inch away from him, her face an inch from his. For a few seconds, he froze. Then he acted on his instinct.

He kissed her.

Thalia tensed in surprise. She felt him wrap his hands around her upper arms. For a moment neither of them moved. Then she put her arms around his neck. He slid his hands down her body to rest on her waist. It wasn't until she felt his tongue run across her bottom lip that she realized what they were doing.

She pulled away and stumbled back to lean against the wall. She didn't look at him, only at the ground. They were quiet for a moment. Then she said, "We can't do this."

"Why not?" Nico asked.

She looked up at him. "I can't do this."

Nico stepped towards her. "Why?"

"Because…" she stopped.

"Because you're afraid," Nico finished for her.

She nodded slightly. "You're going to leave."

"I'm not going to leave. I swear." He took another step forward. He was close to her now.

"Everyone leaves."

He nodded. "I know. But sometimes you just have to trust that it will be okay."

"But what if it's not?" Her voice broke.

He didn't say anything, just wrapped his arms around her. He felt his shirt get wet and knew she was crying.

"Then you try again."

**Sorry this chapter took so long, I had massive writer's block. Which is funny, because I took days planning out this story. You'd think I'd whip right through it. But oh well. In case anyone hasn't figured this out, these chapters are all based on a song. This one is based on While Your Lips Are Still Red by Nightwish. The URL on the top is to a youtube video for the song. I hope to have the next chapter up soon, but it might take a while. Sorry again for skipping chapter 2.**


	6. Angels

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Angels by Within Temptation.**

**Chapter 5 – Angels**

** watch?v=ZihdziV8LmY**

The next day, Nico was waiting at the doors in the morning when Percy came in. "Hey," Percy said, surprised. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Waiting," Nico responded.

"For what?"

Nico didn't answer.

Percy's face broke into a grin. "A girl?"

"Get lost," Nico mumbled as his cheeks flamed red.

Percy laughed and started singing, "Nico's got a girlfriend."

"Percy, what are you doing?" came a voice from down the hall, and Nico looked gratefully to…Rachel. Nico's grateful expression fell.

"Nico's go…" Percy was cut off by Nico's hand covering his mouth.

"What was that?" Rachel asked, coming to a stop in front of them, crossing her arms and looking pointedly at Nico.

"Nothing," Nico said loudly over Percy's muffled words.

Thalia walked in the doors with her hoodie up, staring at the floor and listening to Green Day on her iPod. She wished her music was louder when she heard the voice of Rachel Elizabeth Dare saying "Hey look, it's the freak!" and laughing.

She looked up and saw Rachel standing with two tall boys with dark hair. The boys turned around and she saw that they were Percy Jackson and Nico.

Nico turned back to face Rachel. "Shut up, Rachel."

She looked shocked. "What?"

"Shut up."

Thalia was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Nico turned back to her and grinned, taking his hand off Percy's mouth and wiping it on his pants. Then he stepped forward, took her hand, and in front of Percy, Rachel, and Annabeth, who had just walked up, kissed her. It was short, but it made her feel like she wanted to smile again, which was weird. She was in _school_.

Nico looked at Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel. Percy had his mouth wide open in shock. Annabeth was smiling ear to ear. Rachel looked livid.

"She's your girlfriend?" Percy asked when he'd got his voice back.

"She's your girlfriend?" Rachel asked. Her voice was as poisonous as her face.

Annabeth didn't say anything. She was too busy smiling.

"Yeah," Nico answered.

"Is that a problem, Dare?" Thalia asked, glaring at Rachel.

Rachel smiled. She looked a bit like a snake. "No, of course not, Grace." Rachel spat out Thalia's name like it was a bad word.

"Knock it off, Rachel," Annabeth said.

Rachel looked like she wanted to respond, but the bell rang, and they all had to go off to their homerooms.

"I'll see you at lunch," Nico said to Thalia before going with Percy to their homeroom.

Percy made kissy faces at him when he walked over. Without breaking his stride, Nico shoved him into the lockers and continued down the hall.

Needless to say, their homeroom teacher was shocked when Nico wasn't the last person there.

*Three*Weeks*Later

"Come on, Thals," Nico said, tugging on his girlfriend's hand.

"Nico…" Thalia began, then trailed off.

"It's just one lousy dinner," Nico pleaded. "Please?"

Thalia sighed and looked at the house in front of them. "What if they don't like me?"

Nico sighed and put his hands on her upper arms. "They'll like you. I promise."

"But what if they don't?" Thalia protested.

Nico shook his head. "They will."

"But…" Thalia began, but was cut off by Nico's finger on her lips.

"They'll like you. Now shut up and come inside with me." Nico turned around and pulled Thalia with him into the house.

It was just as black on the inside as it was outside. The first room had a stone floor, black walls, a black washer, a black dryer, and a staircase made of wood.

Nico dragged her into the kitchen, where there were black counter tops, a black stove, and a black sink. The floor was a dark-colored wood. There was a vase of flowers on the counter, and another next to the sink. The walls were off-white and decorated with black vines.

Across the counter in the other half of the kitchen was a black stone table. Sitting at the table doing homework was a girl who looked about college age. She looked like Nico, with her black hair and black eyes. She looked up at them and smiled when she saw Nico. Thalia thought she looked familiar.

"This is my sister, Bianca," Nico introduced. "Bianca, this is Thalia. My girlfriend."

Thalia thought she saw Bianca's eyes darken when he said "girlfriend", but she didn't say anything.

Bianca smiled. It seemed a bit forced. "Hi, Thalia."

"Hi." Thalia wasn't as good at fake smiling as Bianca was. Her's looked _very_ forced.

It was silent for a few seconds until Bianca said, "They're in the living room."

Thalia wasn't sure who she was talking about, but Nico nodded and said, "Thanks." Then he guided Thalia through a door to the living room. There was a big black couch facing a flat screen TV. The floor and walls were the same as in the kitchen. And there was a man and a woman sitting on the couch.

Nico took her over in front of the TV. The man on the couch was wearing black jeans and a black polo shirt. He had the same dark eyes and dark hair as Nico. The woman was the opposite, with light blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing white jeans and a black ruffled shirt.

"This is Thalia. She's my girlfriend," Nico said, a bit shortly. He looked at the man, never once glanced at the woman.

The man gave a smile that made it look like he didn't have much practice. "I'm Hades. I'm Nico's dad."

The woman's smile lit up the room. "And I'm his mom, Persephone."

"Stepmom," Nico said.

Thalia decided she didn't like Persephone. She looked too much like all of Thalia's foster parents when they first met her. Fake.

Persephone turned her blinding smile on Nico. "You didn't tell me you were dating anyone," she accused.

Nico gave her a poisonous look. "Why would I tell you?"

"Nico," his father said in a warning tone.

"No, no, it's okay," Persephone said, putting a hand on her husband's arm. "I understand. He was keeping it a secret." She giggled girlishly.

Persephone was quickly falling into the "Supremely Annoying" category, Thalia decided.

Nico mumbled a few choice words that Thalia was sure his father wouldn't have liked, and pulled her away towards the stairs to their left. The stairs led to a black hallway, with doors on either side. Nico led her down to the end of the hallway and opened a door that had a skull-and-crossbones painted on it. Nico's room was painted a dark blue color, like the night sky. His walls were covered in Green Day posters. Thalia looked around, then looked at Nico, who had sat down on the bed.

"So I guess I didn't have to worry about them not liking me. More like you not liking them," Thalia said, smirking.

"Yeah, Persephone bugs me sometimes." Nico looked down at his hands.

"I could tell." Thalia sat down next to Nico on the bed.

He looked at her. "It's just, she tries to act like she's my mom. She asks me questions about school, she tries to give me advice. And maybe I shouldn't blow up at her, but…" Nico trailed off and looked back at his hands. "Never mind."

"I get it."

He looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Nico, I've been living with people like that since I was seven. Whole families like that. Remember? Foster kid?"

Nico nodded, looking forward. "Right, sorry. Forgot."

Thalia shrugged and looked around his room. "I guess you like Green Day."

"Best band ever." Nico used his hands to emphasize his words.

"Definitely," Thalia agreed, nodding.

Nico stood up and put a disk into the cd player sitting on the desk. A few seconds later, American Idiot started playing.

"It's my favorite album," he explained, standing next to the cd player with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"I can't decide between this one and 21st Century Breakdown."

Nico nodded. "Yeah, that one's good, too. But this one has Holiday."

"21st Century Breakdown has 21 Guns."

"Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

"Viva La Gloria."

"St. Jimmy."

"American Eulogy."

"Give Me Novocaine."

"Song of the Century."

Nico stared at her. "What?"

Thalia burst out laughing. It was something she'd been doing more often in the past three weeks. "It's a good song!"

"Yeah, all thirty seconds of it," Nico said, stepping forward.

"It's nearly a minute!"

Nico gave her a look. "The fact that that was your argument just shows how boring it is."

"Okay, maybe it is boring. But 21st Century Breakdown has East Jesus Nowhere and Peacemaker, too."

"Yeah, but American Idiot was made into a Broadway Production."

"With songs from 21st Century Breakdown. And that girl was amazing at 21 Guns."

Nico had taken a step closer, and Thalia was standing. "Well, yeah." His voice had gotten quieter.

"And Letterbomb." Thalia's voice softened, too.

Nico was closer. "Yeah."

"And…" There was something else, but Thalia couldn't think of it.

"Shut up," Nico said, and leaned forward to kiss her.

After half an hour or so (it could have been longer, they weren't really paying attention to the clock) of making out, Thalia said goodbye to Hades, Persephone, Bianca, and Nico, and went back to her foster home. Amy Moore could tell that something was different. When asked where she'd been, Thalia said, "Out," instead of swearing.

*Two*Weeks*Later

It was the longest time Nico had ever dated anyone for. Nearly a month and a half. Thalia's social worker, Shelly, was very happy that Thalia was being relatively pleasant for her foster-mother, it was rare. Thalia was just happy that that particular meeting had been short.

They were in the library studying for a test in math. It was one of the subjects Nico was almost good at, so he helped Thalia to understand. She found that she had an easier time understanding and remembering things when Nico helped her.

But she didn't usually think that while she was studying, and at this particular study session she was getting a headache. Algebra II was hard.

Nico chuckled when she put her head down on the table and groaned. "Go get some water," he said.

Thalia nodded into her book and stood up. She walked out the door towards the water fountain.

Nico sat there, looking around. He knew that she wouldn't be back for a while, she would probably go to the bathroom and sit there for a few minutes before she came back.

"Hey, Nico." The voice came from behind him, and he turned around.

"Hey, Rachel."

Rachel sat down in the seat previously occupied by Thalia. She put the books in her arms on top of the Algebra II book that Thalia had been studying out of. "Whatcha doing?"

"Studying for that Algebra test tomorrow."

Rachel nodded.

"Helping Thalia study, actually," he corrected himself.

Rachel looked like she was trying not to make a face. "Are you still dating her?"

"Yeah." Nico hid his clenched fists below the table. "I am."

Rachel leaned forward. "Do you really want to keep dating her? She's a freak."

Nico's jaw clenched along with his fists. "She's not a freak, Rachel."

"But she's not good enough for you. You could do so much better."

"Go away, Rachel," Nico growled.

Rachel pouted. "Oh, come on, Nico. She's not worth it."

"Get the hell out of my face, Rachel." Nico's voice was dangerous.

Rachel leaned forward.

The first thing that Thalia saw when she walked back into the library was her boyfriend kissing Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

And the first thing Nico saw when he pushed Rachel away was Thalia leaving the library.

**For anyone who thought this was going to be a happy chapter, you obviously haven't read my other stories. I don't really do happy. I know this is sort of typical, boy meets girl, boy and girl start dating, boy gets assaulted and kissed by different girl, first girl sees and assumes boy is cheating on her. Usually the boy explains and the girl doesn't believe him, and they break up until they realize that they can't live without each other, and then they end up getting married and living happily ever after. I swear that's not how this is going to work. I have something much more interesting planned. Sorry I took so long. My goal is to have the next chapter up in a week, but I don't know how well that's going to go. I'm starting school in two weeks, so obviously uploading is going to be harder. But I'll do my best. **


	7. Missing

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Missing by Evanescence.**

**Chapter 6 – Missing**

** watch?v=vBSehQYRP5E **

"Thalia, wait!" Nico cried as he shoved Rachel out of his way and ran towards the closing door. Thalia was at the end of the hall, almost at the doors. Nico grabbed her arm before she could open the door.

"Get off me," Thalia snarled, ripping her arm out of Nico's grip.

"Thalia, I didn't kiss her." Nico stepped in front of her so she couldn't leave.

Thalia laughed harshly. "Really? Because it sure as hell looked like you did." She tried to push past him, but he didn't move.

"She kissed me. I would never do that to you, Thals, you know that."

"Do I?"

She stared into his eyes, and he didn't answer.

"I should have known," she said, almost to herself. She took a step back.

"Thalia…" Nico said. He sounded a bit desperate.

"I shouldn't have trusted you!" She tried to sound strong and angry, but the crack in her voice and the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks betrayed her.

Nico stepped forward and reached out to take her hand. Thalia stepped backward and pulled her hand away.

"Thalia, I didn't kiss her. I wouldn't cheat on you."

Thalia stared at him and took another step backward. "Get the hell away from me, di Angelo."

Nico started forward to follow her as she turned and ran down the hall, but thought better of it. He leaned back against the doors, put his palms to his forehead, and moaned. "Shit."

He didn't know how long he stood there, but he knew he shouldn't go after her. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong. But he also knew he should have been firmer with Rachel. And he knew that Thalia had never really thought they would work. He'd let her down.

He didn't know how long he stood there, holding on to some ridiculous hope that she would come back. Finally he went to the library to get his things and left, walking by the alley in hopes that she would be there. She wasn't.

Thalia went out the back door, not caring that she'd left her bag and books in the library. She fought off tears as she ran across the back parking lot. She ran through the streets of Manhattan, hoping that Nico wouldn't follow her. The few times she glanced back told her that he wasn't.

When she thought she was far enough away, she turned into an alley and curled up behind a large stack of boxes. The tears flowed hot and fast down her cheeks as she choked on sobs.

* / / * / / *

Sometimes he would pass her in the halls. They shared Greek class, and they had to work on their project, but they didn't speak. Thalia took over the job of script writer and Nico designed costumes and made props. Sometimes she would catch him looking at her, but as soon as she noticed he would pretend that he wasn't and would look away.

After school they would walk in separate directions, Nico sometimes getting a ride from his sister, Thalia always walking. Whenever Nico would climb into his sister's car he would feel her stare on the back of his neck, but she never said anything, and he never mentioned it. When he was in his own car he would put in 21st Century Breakdown and turn up his stereo as loud as he could bear, hoping that it would drown out his thoughts.

It never did.

Then one day Nico didn't see Thalia in the halls. She wasn't in Greek, and when he looked over at her usual table in the corner, it was empty. He brushed off the thought, thinking that she was sick. There was a cold going around the school.

She wasn't in school the next day, or the day after. After a week of not seeing her, he began to suspect something was wrong. After two, he knew something was.

He tried her phone at least once a day, only to have it go to voicemail. He asked other people in their class, and even the teachers, but the students told her they didn't know (some asked who Thalia Grace was) and the teachers said they assumed she was sick. He could tell that some teachers were glad that she wasn't there.

Rachel watched Nico go from upset about the breakup to stressed that Thalia wasn't there to balancing on the line between worry and panic when Thalia didn't show up after two and a half weeks. Rachel had always liked Nico, and she wanted to go out with him, but she knew what she had done was wrong. She didn't know why she had kissed him, and she wanted to fix it. She wanted to explain to Thalia what had happened. She didn't care if Thalia bitch-slapped her afterwords.

So she pulled some strings and found out where Thalia lived. She was surprised to find that no one living with Thalia shared her last name, but she let it slide. After school on the third Thursday after Thalia's disappearance she tossed her backpack in the limo that picked her up every day and yelled to the chauffeur that she'd be home for dinner. Not that she thought her parents would care.

Thalia's house wasn't far from the school, which Rachel was glad for. The house was in a nice neighborhood, and was light green. Rachel decided that Thalia was obviously living with the wrong people when the woman opened the door wearing a flowery "Kiss the Chef" apron.

The woman smiled. "Hi. I'm Amy. Can I help you?"

Rachel stuck out her hand for the woman to shake. "Rachel." Amy shook her hand. "I go to Thalia's school. Is she here?"

The smile faded off of Amy's face. "No."

Rachel frowned. "Where is she?"

Amy sighed and gestured for Rachel to come in.

* / / * / / *

Nico ate his lunch in silence, staring at Thalia's now vacant table. He had tried calling her again, and again she hadn't answered. His mind sometimes made up explanations for her absence, and he was currently trying to fight some of them off. _No, brain, she's not dead. She has not been in a horrible car accident. She was not kidnapped._ This happened daily.

A tap on his shoulder roused him from his thoughts. He turned to see a familiar pair of green eyes sliding into the seat next to him.

"What do you want, Rachel?" he asked, clenching his fists.

"Nico, I'm really sorry for what I did. And you can be mad at me all you want, but right now I need you to put away that sandwich and come with me."

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Like hell, Rachel."

"Nico, I know you're mad at me. And I completely understand why, but this is not about me or you. I need you to trust me."

He looked back down at his sandwich. "We still have classes."

Rachel snorted. "Like you care. Come on, you can drive."

Nico stared at her for a second, then stood up, walked to the trash can, and threw his sandwich away. Then he looked at Rachel. "Well?"

Rachel breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the doors. Nico got into his car and waited for Rachel to close the passenger door before leaving the school parking lot.

Rachel guided him through the streets of Manhattan until they finally pulled up in front of a light green house with a black shingled roof. Nico gave Rachel a strange look, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. She got out of the car and went up to the door.

The door opened at her knock to reveal a middle-aged woman with curly brown hair. She smiled when she saw Rachel.

"This is Nico," Rachel introduced. "Nico, this is Amy."

Nico raised his hand in greeting. "What are we doing here?"

The woman, Amy, smiled at him. "So you're Nico."

"Yeah. Why?"

"Has Thalia contacted you recently?"

Nico started. "You're her…" he trailed off, not wanting Rachel to know that Thalia was a foster kid.

"Foster mother," Rachel finished for him. Nico looked at her. "Amy told me."

Nico looked back up at Amy. "She hasn't answered my phone calls or my texts. Is she here?"

Amy's face fell and she leaned against the door frame. "No."

"Why? Where is she?"

Amy sighed. "I don't know. It's not the first time. She usually does this when her foster homes get hard. Her social worker warned me."

"Wait, what? What does she do?" Nico asked, looking from Rachel to Amy and back again.

"Leaves," Rachel supplied.

Nico looked up at Amy. She nodded.

"Thalia ran away nearly three weeks ago."

* / / * / / *

Thalia sat on the toilet in the bathroom of a convenience store, staring at her phone. Almost every call was from Nico, and in the past two and a half weeks she'd gotten 24 messages from him, and more than twice that many texts. Sometimes she considered calling him, or answering one of the texts. But she never did.

She looked down at her arm, covered in red lines. Some were brighter than others, they crisscrossed and mixed. In her right hand she held the razor she took everywhere. Right now, its tip was shiny and red.

She looked down at her favorite set of scars. Thirteen lines spelled out a word. A name.

_Nico_.

******I told you it wouldn't be cliché. And the non-cliché-ness is just beginning. Wait 'till you see what I've got planned for you. I got a few reviews that were very anti-Rachel, so I'm sorry if I didn't satisfy you. But I like Rachel, and I feel like she would feel really really bad about what she did. Even if it gave her a few seconds of happiness. Anyway, that last part was very depressing. I know what I'm doing for next chapter, but I don't have all the details, so it will probably take longer. Besides, school is starting. ****Freshman year! I'm trying very hard to be happy about this.**


	8. Somewhere

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Somewhere by Within Temptation.**

**WARNING: Extremely adult themes at the end. Not described, but implied.**

**Chapter 7 – Somewhere**

** watch?v+EEq4ipHJ6Mo **

Nico lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He had spent the last half hour looking at the picture of Thalia he had on his bedside table. They were at the mall, he had convinced her to go because Percy had convinced him to go because Annabeth had convinced Percy to go. They had managed to ditch Percy and Annabeth in the school supplies store (Nico didn't know why anyone would go there in the middle of the year unles they really had to, but Annabeth did). They had gone to the food court. The picture was of Thalia sitting nest to the fountain with a rink in her hand, laughing at him. He had bet her five dollars that he could put an entire double cheeseburger from McDonalds in his mouth. Now that he thought about it, she had never payed him.

Beside him on the bed, his phone started playing the theme song from Jaws. Annabeth had texted him.

_You better find out where Thalia is_ the text said, _because you still have that project due for Brunner._

He hadn't told them yet. He hadn't told them that she had run away. The only one who knew was Rachel.

A sudden wave of anger washed over him, and he threw the phone against the wall. How could Annabeth send him a text like that?

Then he flopped back down on the bed. It wasn't her fault. He could have told them. He should have told them yesterday when he found out.

From the corner, the phone started playing music again. American Idiot by Green Day. Percy's ringtone.

Nico got off the bed and walkedover to the corner, hoping to God that it was just a text. It wasn't. His finger hovered over the end button, but he decided against it and answered the call.

"What?" he said, sitting back down on the bed.

"Where were you today? You didn't come to school." Percy's voice sounded mechanical.

In the back of his mind, Nico knew there was a sarcastic comment to be drawn here. But he didn't have the energy.

"Home," he responded in a flat voice.

"No kidding. You dissapeared yesterday."

"I had something to do."

Nico heard Percy sigh exasperatedly. "That's it? That's all you're gonna tell me?"

"Deal with it." Nico's voice was still flat.

"Dude…" He could hear the frown in Percy's voice. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Nico snapped into the phone.

"No you're not," Percy said. "You're upset about something."

"I'm fine, Percy. Leave me alone."

"Tell me what's wrong," Percy commanded.

Nico was silent for a moment as his eyes filled with tears. Then he took a shaky breath. "She's gone."

"What? What do you mean?"

"She's gone, Percy, she's gone." Nico's voice rose. He closed his eyes and took another breath. "Thalia's gone."

"What do you mean gone?"

"She left. She ran away."

Percy didn't speak. He didn't know what to say. But he didn't need to say anything.

"Rachel brougt me to her house and I talked to her mom and she told me that Thalia had run away. And I don't know where she would have gone and I don't know what to do and I don't know how to face everyone at school because…"

"Nico, stop." Percy's voice wasn't very loud, but it stopped Nico mid-sentence.

"There has to be something else going on. She wouldn't run away because of a break up. It's not your fault."

The tears were running down Nico's cheeks now. "I know there'r other things going on, Percy, she…" he stopped. He'd promised her he wouldn't tell.

"She what?" Percy asked.

"She's a foster kid," Nico blurted. Percy needed to know.

Percy was silent for a few seconds. "See?" he said finally. "It's not your fault, Nico."

Nico laughed and wiped the tears from his cheeks. "God, Percy, when did you get so damn sensitive?"

Percy laughed, too. The two were silent as their laughter died away.

"What am I going to do, Percy?" Nico asked quietly.

"What can you do? Nico, you hear about runaway foster kids all the time. They don't usually come back. But she'll be found eventually. Don't worry."

Nico bit back a comment, he knew Percy was just trying to help. But at the same time, it felt like he was being told to give up.

"Thanks, Percy. I'll see you tomorrow," he said, and hung up the phone before Percy could respond.

He sat on his bed for a few seconds, looking at the picture of Thalia. She looked so happy. Then he stood up, opened his door, and went out into the hall. He knock on the door next to his.

"Yeah," came Bianca's voice from the other side of the door.

Nico opened the door. Bianca was sitting on her bed reading a book, but she looked up with a smile when he came in. The smile was wiped away when she saw the tear tracks on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

He sat down. "Thalia."

Bianca sighed, and Nico could hear the _I told you so_ hidden in the sound. "What happened?"

"She ran away."

Bianca looked at her little brother for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, Nico." But again, Nico could hear the _I told you so_.

"I feel like I'm just sitting here. I want to do something, I want to go find her. But I don't know where she went, I don't know where to start looking."

"You can't go look for her," Bianca said, shaking her head.

"Why not?" Nico asked defensively.

"Thalia is a broken girl, Nico. I told you that before you even started dating. It might be too late to save her."

Nico stood up. "God, you and Percy. You both sound like you're telling me to just give up! I can't do that!"

"Nico…" Bianca started, but she was cut off.

"No, Bianca, I'm not going to give up on her! I'm not going to sit here and wait for her to be found!"

"Why."

Even though it was phrased like a question, Nico knew it was meant to stop him.

"Why can't you just wait for someone else to find her? You're sixteen years old, Nico, you shouldn't be ready to give up everything for a girl. Especially not someone like Thalia." Bianca was on her feet now. "I'm not telling you to give up on her. I'm telling you what I tried to tell you before you even started dating her. Thalia could hurt you." Her voice broke, and when she spoke again, it was quieter. "I don't want my little brother to get hurt."

"I'm not just your little brother anymore! I'm sixteen!" Nico protested.

"Then start acting like it, Nico, because there are things you need to learn about the world. And one of those things is how to move one."

"You mean forget."

Bianca shook her head. "That's not what I mean, you shouldn't forget about Thalia…"

"The way you didn't forget about Mom?"

Bianca stared at her little brother. "I didn't forget about Mom," she said, her voice quiet.

"Don't kid yourself, Bianca. You and Dad both, you completely forgot about her. I don't even remember what she looked like, but it seems like I'm the only one who remembers she existed. I'm the only one who didn't act like Persephone was Mom when she showed up."

"I was accepting what had happened to Mom and realizing that Persephone wasn't going anywhere. I was moving on."

"You were acting like Mom didn't exist! Persephone came in here, pretended that she was our mom, and you never even blinked an eye."

"Persephone will never be our mom, Nico! I know that just as well as you do! And I hate Dad just as much as you do for acting like Persephone can replace Mom. She can't. But I know she's not going anywhere, and I've learned to accept that. And I think it's time you accepted that Thalia's gone, too!"

Nico stared at her for a few seconds. "Did I tell you why we broke up?"

The question caught Bianca off guard. "No."

He sat down, and Bianca followed suit. "We were studying in the library."

"She got up to get some water, and while she was gone, Rachel came. Long story short, Rachel kissed me, Thalia saw."

Bianca didn't say anything.

"I swear I didn't kiss Rachel back, but Thalia isn't so good at trusting relationships. So when she saw that…" He trailed off.

"You do realize that is one of the most cliché breakups in the world, right?" Bianca said. Nico glared at her.

"That's not the point. The point is, it might not be my fault that we broke up, but it's my responsibility to find her and explain. What should I do?"

"What should you do?" Bianca repeated.

Nico nodded.

Bianca looked down at her hands, then looked back up. "I don't like your relationship with Thalia, I think it's dangerous. For you especially," Bianca began. "And honestly, I wish you would give up and not look for her. Because eventually, she's going to hurt you. She already has." Nico looked down, and Bianca sighed. "But I know you care about her. So…" she exhaled, "do what you think is right, Nico. And if that means going to look for her," she smiled and laid her hand on her brother's arm, "go ahead."

Nico looked up at her and gave her a small smile. "Thanks, B."

From downstairs, Persephone called them to dinner. Nico scowled at the door.

Bianca chuckled. "Come on," she said, standing up and pulling her brother with her. She looked him up and down. "Damn, Nico, when did you get so tall?"

Nico laughed and opened the door for his sister, then followed her down to dinner.

*/*/*

Thalia sat on the sidewalk, digging through her pack. She knew she'd put that money somewhere. She'd found a wallet on the bus yesterday, and she couldn't believe her luck. It had a student ID, a credit card, and twenty dollars. She'd taken the money and turned in the wallet. It would feed her for a while.

She stopped her search when she realized that someone was standing on the street to her right. She looked up. The setting sun to her left made it easy to see the blonde hair and blue eyes, and the scar running down the left side of his face.

She knew him. He'd been her foster brother when she was ten. She'd run away with him.

"Luke."

He smiled, making the scar shift. "Thalia."

"What do you want?" she spat.

He laughed. "That's no way to talk to an old friend, Thalia."

"Shut up, Luke. What do you want?"

Luke shrugged. "Do you want to come home with me?"

"What?" she asked, staring at him.

He sighed, rolling his eyes. "Thalia, I've been where you are, you know that. Judging from the way you look," he leaned forward and sniffed, "and the way you smell, you've probably been out here a few weeks. I just want to give you a shower, a meal, and somewhere to sleep that isn't made out of concrete."

Thalia thought about it. Luke had left her, but he'd had good reason to, and she had trusted him once. Besides, she hadn't had any of the things he was offering in three weeks. She'd been washing in convenience store sinks, eating whatever she could pay for, and sleeping in alleys and on park benches. She was ready for a change.

"Fine," she said standing up. Luke smiled and led her to a red pickup truck. She got in the passenger door.

They drove for what felt like miles, and eventually Thalia fell asleep.

She woke up when she realized the truck had stop and her door was open. They were in the middle of nowhere, and it was dark. Thalia guessed it was near midnight. Luke was standing at her door.

"Luke?" she said. Her voice was still thick with sleep.

"Get out," he said, and stood back to give her room.

She obeyed.

"Now take off your clothes," he ordered.

"What?"

He reached into his pocket, then moved his hand to her head. She felt something press against her temple, but in the dark, she couldn't tell what it was.

"Take off your damn clothes."

Thalia didn't move. When the object next to her head clicked, she realized what it was. A gun.

Slowly, she unzipped her black sweatshirt and peeled it off. Luke's eyes flickered down to her lowcut shirt.

"Faster," he ordered, pressing the gun harder against her temple.

When she'd completed his demand, he ordered her to the ground. Then he lowered himself down and kissed her roughly.

She never screamed that night. She never make a sound.

**I'm really sorry if that last part upset anyone, but it's really important to the rest of the story. I'm also sorry if the majority of this bored anyone, I feel like Nico talking to people is boring. So I'm sorry about that. Oh, and I'm sorry that this is a day later than I meant it to be. I started high school this week, if anyone cares. I'm trying to convince myself it will get better. I have an appointment tomorrow with my guidance counselor to change my schedule. By the way, I know I told you this a few chapters ago, but the link at the top is to the youtube video of the song each chapter is based on. Does anyone actually listen to them? Because even if you don't listen to them for the story, they're all by really good bands, so you should give the bands a chance. Because they're awesome. This chapter's song is Somewhere by Within Temptation, and if you happen to have a minute, look up Our Solemn Hour by the same band. It's amazing.**

**If anyone doesn't know, I've started responding to all of the reviews I get. But some people that review don't have accounts, so I can't PM them. So I'm responding to them here. There's only one today.**

**Lucy: Thanks. As you can see, I'm uploading now. I'll upload as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**I'm really sorry if I didn't respond to someone's review, but I promise I'll respond to all of them this time.**


	9. Snow White Queen

******I decided to respond to all the reviews here instead of PMing you all individually. So here are responses.**

**SummerSpirit18:** **The nitpicker in me would like to mention that Luke will be _dead_, not _death_, sorry if you don't like me correcting you. You'll actually get to hear about Nico's reaction next chapter, so stay tuned! I love your word. I will have to use it as soon as I figure out how to pronounce it.**

**Dingy108: You're welcome. Where did you come up with your name?**

**LizziDaughterOfHades: When you say American Idiot soundtrack, do you mean the production soundtrack? I love that version of 21 Guns, my favorite is the one with the cast and Billie Joe Armstrong, but they don't have an album version for that. Anyway, all the bands I use ARE amazingful. I hope high school isn't as bad for you next year, too, because it's really bad for me. By the way, I _love_ your profile picture.**

**Guest: I know, he is, I'm very sorry to do that to Thalia. *Hands you a tissue***

**xXxZuesMasterBoltxXx: I'm pretty sure you weren't swearing at me, and I mostly understood your comment. Some people are like that, some men see women as nothing. You'll find out what Nico does in the next chapter. You're welcome for updating!**

**Drawing On Converse: Yeah, I had a lot of fun picking the ringtones. Especially Annabeth's, although I've never seen Jaws.**

**Purple-Puppy591: Thank you, I will definitely continue. I hope you figure out your account. This is me reminding you to follow me as you requested.**

**Sonyvaio: I'm going to update really soon, I'm pretty close to being done with the next chapter.**

**Thalico-Forever13: Thank you! Here is your update, I'm glad Nico talking isn't boring. I'm glad you like the story. I sort of hope Luke is a bastard in everyone's opinions, because, well, he is. Love your name, too.**

**critic12: I think to be considered Thuke, Thalia would have to be willing. And I think the definition of "rape" is that one of them isn't willing. I am completely against Thuke, and this is a Thalico story. Thanks for loving it, though!**

**Miette in the Rain: Don't worry, there will be plenty of ass kicking in the next chapter. Actually, I'm not sure if Nico is ever actually going to meet Luke, but he will very much want to kick Luke's ass. And remember, Nico is constantly being hurt by his father, because Hades acts like Persephone can replace Maria. Bianca's trying to prevent him from being hurt any more, she's more interested in the welfare of her brother than of other people.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Snow White Queen by Evanescence. I do own Jane.**

**Chapter 8 – Snow White Queen**

** watch?v=-07E8_0_6Ps **

Thalia lay on the ground. Luke was lying next to her. At some point last night, he'd started drinking, and Thalia didn't think he was going to wake up any time soon.

She curled herself into a ball, resting her head on her knees, which were tucked to her chest. She ignored the protests from her leg, Luke hadn't been gentle. He had, however, been violent when she didn't respond to his eagerness, and she had a black eye and a split lip as proof.

She looked at Luke again. He was still asleep. She looked around for street signs, but there were none. She had no idea where she was.

But she knew which way they had come from, and that was something. She went to the truck and put on her clothes. She knew Luke hadn't taken anything from her backpack, she'd been holding it to her stomach while she slept in the truck, and she hadn't slept after that. She pulled the bag from the truck and swung it onto her back. Then she pulled up her left sleeve.

The scars that spelled Nico's name had been marred by Luke's grip; there were finger shaped bruises all over both of her arms. But the scars were still readable, and she ran her fingers over them before pulling her sleeve down, steeling one more glance at Luke's sleeping form, slamming the door shut, and beginning to walk down the road.

She knew it was going to be a long walk, especially with the pain in her leg. She was limping, but she had nothing else to do. She couldn't stay with Luke and…

Wait. The truck. She knew the keys were still on the dashboard, she'd seen them. She turned around and looked back. Could she risk waking him up?

She'd seen how much he'd had to drink last night, she'd watched him. There wasn't much that could wake him up right now. She didn't know how far they were from other people, but she assumed it was far. Luke would have taken her far away.

She absent mindedly shifted her weight from one leg to the other, and pain shot through her leg. That was it, she decided. Her leg hurt too much to walk too far, and even if he did wake up, what could he do? She'd already be in the truck, and he couldn't chase her.

She limped the few yards back to the truck and got in, tossing her backpack into the passenger seat. She took the keys from the dashboard and put the in the ignition. The engine came to life when she turned the key and she craned her neck to see if Luke had woken up. He hadn't.

She pulled away from the grass, and when she had turned around she glanced behind her at Luke. He hadn't moved.

She drove for hours, listening to her iPod until it ran out of battery, and then turning on the radio.

At ten, she came to a highway, and started looking for signs that would lead her to something to eat.

At 11:30, she saw one. It was blue, and had a McDonald's symbol on it.

At noon, she found the McDonald's. She had enough money to get a cheeseburger and a soda, and although it didn't completely satisfy her hunger, it helped.

At 12:30, she got back on the road.

At one, she got back on the highway. She pulled her sweatshirt around her; it was cold, and the truck had no heater.

At 2:30, she ran out of gas.

Thinking back on it, she was lucky she'd made it this far without having to stop, but she should have checked the tank.

But that didn't matter now, because she was somewhere on Route 216 in 20 degree weather with an empty gas tank and no way to get anywhere. Not that she really needed to get anywhere, she didn't even know where she was going. But that didn't make her less scared.

She sat with her hands on the wheel for a while before getting out of the truck. When she got out she stared at the hood for a moment, then leaned up against the door and put her hands on her face.

She stood there with her eyes closed until she heard a car door slam and a woman's voice call out, "Hey."

She took her hands off her face and looked to her right. A young woman with chestnut-brown hair was climbing out of a small silver car. "Do you need help?"

Thalia pushed herself off the car and automatically checked to make sure her sleeves were pulled all the way down to cover her scars. "I ran out of gas," she said. She meant to sound strong and indifferent, but instead she sounded like she was about to cry.

The woman took in Thalia's black eye, split lip, smudged makeup, and hair that had obviously been quickly thrown into a ponytail, and gave a sympathetic smile. "Why don't you come with me? We can get some gas and come back, or we can just call a tow truck."

After Luke, Thalia was hesitant to get in a car with anyone, especially a stranger. She didn't know anything about this woman.

But what else was she going to do? Wait for a miracle? Wait for someone she knew to come along? She didn't really have any other options. And what was the worst this woman could do? It couldn't be worse than what had already happened to her.

As if she knew Thalia's thoughts, the woman gave a small laugh. "I won't hurt you, don't worry. My name's Jane. What's yours?" she asked, taking a step forward.

Thalia shoved her hands in her pockets and said, "Grace." She wasn't ready to give her real name.

"Well, Grace, you look cold. And that lip could use a look at," Jane said. Her smile was almost infectious. Thalia felt her spirits lift. She decided to trust this woman.

She nodded. Jane's smile grew wider and she waved Thalia forward, gesturing for her to get in the front passenger seat.

Jane's car smelled like fresh bread, which Thalia thought was a strange smell for a car. It made more sense when she realized that there were two loaves of fresh bread in the back. Her stomach growled, and she tried to hide it.

Jane laughed. "One of my patients gave it to me. Do you want some?"

Thalia realized she was talking about the bread. "I'm fine, thanks," she said.

Jane reached into the back and grabbed one of the loaves, and the knife next to it. She cut a slice of bread and handed it to Thalia. "You look like you haven't eaten in a while."

"I had lunch," Thalia said as she took the bread and tasted it. It was delicious.

"What about breakfast? Or dinner? Or lunch yesterday?"

Thalia's silence told Jane what she needed to know.

"So, what are you doing out here?"

Thalia didn't answer for a moment as she finished her bread. Then she shrugged.

"Runaway?" Jane guessed.

Thalia looked at her, and Jane laughed. "I work at a nursing home, but I used to work with in a help center for kids like you. I know what a runaway looks like."

Thalia looked back down at her hands. "Yeah. I'm a runaway." It felt strange giving personal information to someone she barely knew.

Jane nodded and turned the key in the ignition. "So should we call a tow truck or get gas?"

"Just leave it," Thalia said, playing with her fingers.

Jane didn't answer, just pulled onto the road and started driving.

It turned out Jane didn't live that far away, and it only took half an hour to get to her house. When they did, Jane took Thalia into the back bedroom and said, "You can sleep if you want."

Thalia nodded.

Before Jane shut the door, she asked, "Do you have someone you can call? You can use the phone."

Thalia's first thought was of Nico, but she pushed it away and shook her head. "No."

Jane smiled. "Dinner's at six, if you want." She shut the door.

"Thank you," Thalia whispered but Jane didn't hear her.

She turned and looked at the small bed. It had two pillows and was covered in a colorful quilt. There was a nightstand next to it, with a small lamp. She followed the lamp's plug to the power outlet and plugged in her iPod charger. Then she put her backpack on the bed and lay down. She put in her ear buds and closed her eyes.

She hadn't slept in over 24 hours, and she hadn't slept properly in three weeks. She didn't wake up until she heard knocking on the door and Jane's voice telling her it was time for dinner. Her iPod had finished charging.

Dinner was homemade mac and cheese – complete with bread crumbs on top – and was amazing. Thalia didn't hesitate to tell Jane this, and Jane laughed and offered her more. Thalia accepted seconds, thirds, and fourths.

After dinner, Jane pulled lemon squares from the top of the refrigerator and handed one to Thalia. "So."

Thalia looked up at her, holding the lemon square in her hand. "So?"

Jane gave a small smile. "You can stay the night, of course. But I think you should find somewhere more permanent. I can take you to a runaway shelter if you want."

Thalia looked down at her lemon square and shook her head.

"Grace, you should try it. I know people think it's bad, but it's really not. They'll help you get back on your feet. If you get a job, you might just be able to pull off emancipation."

Thalia chuckled humorlessly. "They'll never grant me emancipation."

"Maybe not. But the shelter could really help you. And you said you had nowhere else to go."

Thalia looked back up at Jane. "I don't need somewhere to go. I'll be fine if I get back to New York."

Jane raised an eyebrow. "On the streets? That's not a place to live."

"I've managed before, I'll manage this time."

"You've done this before?"

Thalia realized what she'd said, and that she'd given too much information. She bit her lip and said nothing.

"You're in the foster system, aren't you?" Jane realized.

Thalia laughed. "It's creepy that you can figure that out." She nodded. "Yeah, I'm in the system. I ran away from one of my homes."

"Then go back to your social worker and find a new home."

Thalia looked at her. It was the first time she'd seemed like she didn't understand Thalia's situation. "It's not that easy."

Jane nodded. "I know it's not. But I know some kids who have found really good homes. Maybe you could be one of them." She put her hand on Thalia's arm. "You have to go somewhere, Grace."

Thalia looked down at her lemon square again. "Thalia."

Jane's eyebrows came together. "What?"

"My name. It's Thalia. Thalia Grace." She looked at Jane. "Can I just…stay here tonight? I swear I'll find somewhere to go tomorrow morning."

Jane smiled and nodded. "Of course."

Thalia lifted her lemon square and took a bite out of it. "This is really good."

Jane laughed. "Thanks. It gets kind of lonely here all by myself. I like to bake."

"You could try getting a pet. A cat, or something."

"I'm allergic."

"Hmm. Maybe a cat's not such a good idea."

They both laughed, and as the laughter died away, they fell into silence, eating their lemon bars.

Finally Jane stood and said, "The bathroom is down the hall to the right. You can take a shower."

Thalia nodded her thanks and stood.

In the shower she ran her hand over the scars. Her fingers lingered over Nico's name.

When she woke up at two o'clock in the morning from a nightmare, she knew it was time.

She tiptoed into the kitchen and took the cordless phone from its place on the wall. She didn't have the number written down in front of her, but she didn't need it. She'd memorized it a long time ago.

She dialed the number and listened as the phone rang.

**So, I was writing this, and I had almost five pages, and I was planning to make that the end of the chapter. And then I decided that it wasn't fair to stop where I was planning to stop, so I copy/pasted part of the chapter onto a new document and decided to stop here. So I've got half of chapter 9 done, and that will be up pretty soon.**

**I came up with another idea, so for any of you who love the Avengers as much as I do, I will probably start a new story as soon as I'm finished with this one. Focused on Clint and Natasha.**

**By the way, I got more reviews for this chapter than for any other chapter. Eleven. Yay!**


	10. Frozen

**Eight reviews for last chapter! I'm very happy. Here are the responses:**

**Lucy: Thank you, I did upload sooner than I thought I would.**

**Evie123: Yes, new chapter. Here's another. Thank you, I'm glad you love my story. By the way, thank you for not writing out that many pleases. That would be waaaaay too many pleases for one review.**

**xXxZuesMasterBoltxXx: You're welcome for answering the review. I'm glad you weren't swearing at me, I didn't really think you were, but hey, some people were not happy with me for having Luke rape Thalia. If you love that one, I think you'll love this one even more!**

**Miette in the Rain: Jane is supposed to be sweet. Actually, I didn't think anyone wouldn't know who she was calling, it sort of seemed obvious to me. But then again, I'm the writer. But think about it: she hates her foster mom, and she doesn't like her social worker. So really, who do you think she's calling?**

**SummerSpirit18: Well, it's two o'clock in the morning. Will Nico answer his phone at two in the morning? Read and find out...**

**Dingy108: I'm updating, I'm updating, I'm updating. I'm glad you like my story that much.**

**LizziDaughterOfHades: I know it's the actual picture of Thalia. I loved the demigod diaries, especially the new picture of Thalia. But I thought the picture of Hal (or was it Cal?) was sort of pointless. He's not a main character. Anyway, I hate you very much now because you saw American Idiot live! Grr. Do you really think I would torture you by having her call someone other than Nico? Who else would she call?**

**purplebutterfly12: Jane? I was thinking about that, but I don't think so.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Frozen by Within Temptation. I do own Jane.**

**Chapter 9 – Frozen**

** watch?v=3uuaNKfQPkU**

Nico hadn't fallen asleep until midnight that night, so he'd only gotten two hours of sleep when the phone rang. He contemplated ignoring it and letting whoever it was leave a message, but decided that he was awake now and he probably wouldn't get to sleep again anyway, and he might as well answer the phone.

He picked it up and pressed the send button. "What the hell do you want?" he groaned into the phone.

"Nico?" came the small voice from the other end of the line.

Nico sat bolt up right, completely awake. "Thalia?"

"Yeah."

A million questions ran through his head at once, and he picked one. "Where are you?"

"Uh…" she sounded unsure. "At a friend's house. I don't really know where."

"Are you okay?"

Thalia paused. What was she supposed to tell him? "Sort of."

"What do you mean?"

Thalia leaned against the wall. She couldn't tell him about Luke. Not right now. "I'm fine."

Nico knew she wasn't, but he brushed it aside. He swung his legs out of bed, stood up, and began looking for a shirt. "If you find out where you are, I'll come get you."

Thalia's left hand tightened around the sleeve of her shirt. "Jane's asleep."

Nico stopped looking for a shirt. "Who's Jane?"

"The friend I'm staying with. She found me, the truck I was using ran out of gas."

He kept looking for his shirt. "Do you have any idea where you are?"

"Um, I think I'm still in New York. I ran out of gas on Route 216."

Route 216. That wasn't far from the city.

Thalia heard footsteps behind her, and turned around. Jane was standing there in a gray tank top, rubbing her eyes. "Can I call you back?"

"Of course," Nico answered. Thalia went to hang up the phone, but the sound of her name stopped her. "Thalia."

She put the phone back up to her ear. "Yeah?"

"I'm really glad you called."

Thalia swallowed. "I'll call you back." She hung up the phone and turned to Jane.

"I'm really sorry I woke up," she said.

Jane shook her head. "Who was that?"

"Uh…" What should she call Nico? "My someone."

Jane raised her eyebrow. "Your someone?"

Thalia looked down at her hands. "You said I could use the phone if I had someone I could call. The was my someone."

Jane smiled and nodded. "Is your someone going to pick you up?"

Thalia shook her head, still looking at her hands. "I couldn't give him directions. I don't really know where this is."

Jane laughed. "If you call him back, I can give him directions. What's his name?"

Thalia looked up at her. "Nico."

"Can you call him?"

Thalia nodded and picked up the phone. She pressed redial and handed it to Jane.

After a few seconds, Jane started talking. "Hi, is this Nico?…My name is Jane Shepperd." She paused. "Yes. I can give you directions to my house…Where are you?…Where in New York?…" Nico spoke, and Jane gave him directions to her house. "It's probably about a two hour drive." Nico said something else. "Sure." Jane handed the phone to Thalia.

Thalia took it and put it to her ear. "Thanks, Nico."

"Did you think I would say no?"

Thalia closed her eyes. "I didn't know." She opened her eyes. "I'm sorry for over reacting about Rachel."

"Don't worry about it. I'll be there in two hours. I promise."

She smiled. "Thanks."

"Of course." They were silent for a moment. "I'll see you soon, okay?" Nico said finally.

"Yeah. Bye."

"Bye." Thalia smiled as she hung up the phone.

"Thanks, Jane."

Jane smiled. "Of course. I'm really glad you decided to call."

"I just don't want to go back to the foster home."

Jane shrugged, and began moving around the kitchen. "You'll figure that out, don't worry. Why don't you go get your things together, and then come back out here?"

Thalia nodded and went into the back room. She unplugged her iPod charger and put the few things she'd taken out back into her bag. She straightened the quilt and the pillows. She wasn't sure if it was good, she'd never made a bed before. But it was straight, and she assumed that was good.

When she was done, she went back out into the kitchen. Jane was putting two mugs on the table. When Thalia got closer, she realized that they were hot cocoa with whipped cream.

Jane sat down at the table. "My mom used to make this for me when I had bad dreams. It has little marshmallows, two big marshmallows, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream on top."

Thalia picked up her mug. "That sounds amazing." She began eating off the whipped cream.

Jane laughed and started doing the same thing.

They drank their cocoa in silence, and when they were done Jane picked up the mugs and put them in the sink. Then she sat back down.

For the next hour, Jane told stories. Thalia's favorites were the ones about Jane's family, but Jane also told the legends she'd grown up with. Jane's grandparents had come from Greece, and Jane had grown up with the stories of Greek mythology. Thalia loved the stories.

Jane was in the middle of telling her about Theseus and the Minotaur when they heard a car outside. A minute later, there was a knock on the door.

Thalia didn't move for a few seconds, and Jane didn't either, knowing that this was Talia's job. Finally Thalia stood up and went to the door. Her hand rested on the knob for one breath, two. Then she turned it and swung the door open.

Nico stared at her. She had a black eye and a split lip, and she wasn't wearing any makeup, which was unusual for her. Then again, it was 4:00 in the morning.

He launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He felt her put her arms around his neck, and she buried her face in his chest. He put his nose in her hair. Ir still smelled the same.

Nico felt Thalia's shoulders shaking and felt his shirt getting wet, and felt his own eyes misting.

They stood like that for a few minutes, until Thalia pulled away and turned around. "Jane, this is Nico."

The lady behind Thalia grinned and said, "Your someone?"

Thalia smiled and chuckled softly. "Yeah."

Jane looked at Nico and held out her hand. "I'm Jane. Thanks for coming out here so late."

It hadn't even crossed Nico's mind not to come when she'd called, but he didn't mention it. He just smiled and nodded.

Thalia walked towards Jane and gave her a hug. "Thank you so much," she said softly into Jane's ear.

"You're welcome," Jane said. She pulled back a little and looked Thalia in the eye. "Don't get rid of him. He's special."

Thalia gave a small smile and nodded.

"Oh," Jane said, turning away from Thalia and reaching to the top of the fridge. She pulled down the plate of lemon squares and handed one to Nico and one to Thalia.

The two of them thanked her as Thalia grabbed her backpack. Jane followed them to the door and waved as they got into Nico's black car and pulled away.

They drove the first few miles in silence. This was partly because it was quarter of four in the morning, and partly because it had been three weeks since they'd seen each other and neither knew what to say. Or maybe they had too much to say.

Finally Nico broke the silence. "I missed you." He never took his eyes off the road.

Thalia didn't either. "I know."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nico's hands tightening on the wheel. "Why did you leave?"

Thalia didn't have an answer for this, so she rested her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. Finally she said, "I didn't know what else to do."

"You could have come to me, Thalia, you know that."

Thalia took a deep breath, still with her eyes closed. "It's what I do, Nico. It's what I've always done."

"You run when things get hard."

Thalia didn't answer.

"You give up."

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What else am I supposed to do? I thought you had cheated on me, Nico! It's not like I had a family to talk to."

"What about Amy? Your foster mom?"

She laughed, without humor. "You have no idea what it's like, do you." It wasn't a question.

"Maybe I would if you would tell me anything."

Thalia rested her head on her hands, elbows resting on her knees and didn't answer.

Nico glanced at her. "I'm sorry."

She laughed, still not looking up. "Haven't we been over this? Don't say that."

He sighed. "I know. Never mind. We don't have to talk about this." He glanced at her again. "What happened to your eye?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

His hands tightened on the wheel again. "Yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't, okay?" Thalia said, lifting her head up and looking at him.

"God damn it, Thalia, it does! You disappear for three weeks, and then you call me in the middle of the night and tell me you're staying with someone you barely know, and when I get there, you've got a black eye and a fucking split lip!" He was shouting.

Thalia flinched at his loud voice.

"Why did you go home with her?" he asked, lowering his voice.

When she spoke, her voice was almost too low for him to hear. "Sometimes people you know are more dangerous."

He looked at her. He wasn't worried about watching the road, it was too early for there to be traffic. "What do you mean?"

For a while he thought she didn't hear him. Then he heard a soft noise. She was crying.

He pulled over to the right side of the road and stopped the car. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Thalia, what's wrong?"

She didn't answer. She was crying too much.

"Thalia." He repeated her name until she looked up at him. He didn't say anything, just wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his shirt.

After a few minutes her sobs became less violent, and eventually she started telling him what had happened. About Luke finding her, about getting in the truck, about falling asleep, and about waking up in the middle of nowhere with Luke.

And about him raping her.

**Some people reviewed saying that they hoped she was calling Nico. It never occurred to me that she might call someone else. So yes, she did call Nico, because she doesn't trust anyone else.**

**I almost stopped the chapter after she heard the knock on the door, but I decided that you deserved more.**

**There's a poll on my profile. Should Nico meet Luke? If yes, should he hurt Luke? Go on my profile to vote. I think I already know what I'm going to do, but some of you might not like it. Try to change my mind!**

**For anyone who cares, high school has gotten better. That doesn't mean I like it, and it definitely doesn't mean I don't have to force myself to go. But it isn't absolutely awful anymore. I transferred from study hall to music workshop, which is awesome, so that made it better. Bye now! Don't forget to vote on the poll!**


	11. A Demon's Fate

**lizzi: I guess good things can come from study hall. But I got rid of mine, yay! Yes, they be back together. Hopefully they stay that way.**

**Dingy108: You're welcome for reviewing. I hope you live other things, too, because you would have a very sad and lonely life if you only lived this story.**

**Guest: This would be me updating. See me update?**

**whitedragon2645: Thank you, I am!**

**Miette in the Rain: Actually, I'm glad I didn't stop at the knock too. I could have been sneaky, but that would have been mean.**

**Evie123: You're welcome. I'm glad you like it!**

**SummerSpirit18: Thank you, you're welcome.**

**Lucy: You're welcome, I'm glad I made your day. Yeah, I'm glad too. My poll is working now, so you can vote if you haven't already. Most people agree with you.**

**zcrewman: My poll is working so you can vote now. I think everyone wants me to have Nico hurt Luke, but I'm not sure yet...**

**Sonyvaio: Thank you! I'm sorry about the poll but it's working now.**

**Tenebrae Erebus: I'm glad you like my stories. Please don't faint, it would cause unwanted medical bills for your family. I'll try to tone down my awesomeness. Sorry about the poll, but I love the way you phrased your response. By the way, I love your name.**

**PrettyLittleLiar: Thank you, sorry I took so long to update. But here it is!**

**IamSilenaDaughterofAphrodite : Poll is working now, you can vote! I'm updating now, sorry for the wait.**

**riot chicks: I think that's the best idea I've heard. Should Nico hurt him?**

**xXxZuesMasterBoldxXx: I'm sorry you didn't like Thalia getting raped, but it's a very important part of the story. Thank you!**

**17 reviews! More than any other chapter!**

**I don't own Percy Jackson.**

**Chapter 10 – A Demon's Fate**

** watch?v=x6vK9kMwEkc&feature=fvst**

They drove for an hour, until 5:30 when Thalia told him, "I don't want to go home."

He nodded without responding and turned into the parking lot of a 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts.

They got coffee and donuts and ate in silence. Finally Nico said, "Thalia."

She looked up at him. "I didn't cheat on you. I never wanted to kiss Rachel."

Thalia looked back down at her donut and nodded. "I know."

Nico began to speak again, and Thalia looked up and said, "Drop it, Nico."

Something about the way she said it made him stop.

He stood up. "I'll be right back, he mumbled as he walked towards the bathroom.

In the bathroom, he put his back against the wall and slid down it, and rested his hands on his knees. He wanted to hit something, but he didn't want Thalia to hear. The mirror above the sinks would shatter if h punched it, shatter into falling silver shards. Some of the shards would be big, and they would look like covered in blood, silver drenched in ruby red. Luke's blood.

Nico clenched his fists. Luke's name made him sick. He'd never met Luke, and now the one thing he wanted was to meet him. The skin him alive, gouge out his eyes, and then burn what was left of his pathetic existence.

Angry tears began to stream down Nico's face, and he hit his knees with his clenched fists. That…that _thing_ had just _raped_ Thalia like she was worthless. And Nico hadn't been there to stop him. He hadn't been able to protect the person who mattered most to him.

It didn't feel like he sat there for very long, but when his phone rang, the clock told him he'd been there for half an hour.

His phone was playing Basket Case by Green Day, and he almost didn't answer it. He didn't want to talk to Bianca.

But he knew he would never hear the end of it if he didn't answer, so he dug the phone out of his pocket and pressed call.

"Hello?" he said.

"Nico di Angelo, where the hell are you?" Bianca whisper-yelled.

Nico winced, even though her voice wasn't very loud. "Dunkin' Donuts."

"What the hell are you doing in Dunkin' Donuts at 6 o'clock in the morning?"

"Uh…" Nico looked around. "Sitting on the bathroom floor."

Bianca was silent for a moment, and Nico could imagine her pinching the bridge of her nose. "You're sitting on the bathroom floor. At Dunkin' Donuts. At 6 o'clock in the morning."

"Yup," Nico said, nodding even though she couldn't see.

Bianca sighed. "Why?"

Nico paused. He wasn't sure how to tell Bianca that he'd left the house without telling anyone at 2:30 in the morning to drive two hours to pick up a girl who Bianca didn't approve of. "I went to get Thalia," his mouth said without consulting his brain.

"What?"

"I went to pick up Thalia," he repeated.

Bianca was silent again. "You found her?"

"She called me."

Silence. "Good."

Nico couldn't think of anything to say. Luckily Bianca saved him the trouble of having to respond.

"You have to come home. Dad and Persephone will be worried if they wake up and you're not here."

Nico clenched his teeth at the sound of his stepmother's name, and debated not coming home simply to make Persephone and his father mad. But he shook off the thought. He had to bring Thalia back.

"Thalia's staying with us," he said. He hung up the phone without waiting for Bianca's reply.

Nico sat on the bathroom floor for a few more seconds before standing up, brushing off his jeans, and going back out to rejoin Thalia. She looked up at him when he sat down, but didn't say anything.

His coffee had gone cold, and he'd lost his appetite for the half-eaten donut in front of him. Thalia had finished her coffee and donut and was staring at the table in front of her.

"Come on," he said, standing up and walking to the door. He heard her follow him.

They drove in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Then Nico said, "I'm sorry."

Thalia didn't answer him or even look at him.

"I know you hate it when people say that, but I have to. I'm sorry I didn't chase after you after you saw me with Rachel, and I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you when…"

"I know," Thalia interrupted him. "I'm sorry too."

He looked at her, surprised. "I'm sorry I ever thought you would cheat on me. And I'm sorry I didn't pick up when you called."

Nico reached over and took her hand. He almost expected her to pull away, but she didn't.

When they got home at 8:30 in the morning, he led her by the hand past Hades and Persephone who were standing in the kitchen drinking their coffee and up to his bedroom without saying a word.

**I'm sorry this is such a short chapter and I'm sorry it was late, I had writers block and a ton of homework. Homecoming was last Saturday, it really wasn't very much fun. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. By the way, people have been saying that they didn't like the chapter where Thalia got raped. It might be because I didn't write it well or something like that (I have zero experience) but if it's because you didn't like the idea of her getting raped, then be warned: this story is very dark. That's all I'm going to say.**

**I hope to update as soon as possible, but we all know how that tends to work out. I'll try, but don't hold your breath.**


	12. Escapist

**I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the number of reviews, I haven't uploaded in seven months. I'm so sorry about that, by the way.**

**Aishani108: Don't worry, I didn't think you actually lived stories. I'm so sorry it's taken so long for this update, but it's here now!**

**LizziDaughterOfHades: I actually got another study hall second semester and it's been great so far. I hope this chapter is as good as the last.**

**whitedragon2645: Updated! Yay! Finally.**

**xXxZuesMasterBoltxXx: I'm glad you love my story, and I really hope the wait didn't make you love it less.**

**trustingHim17: Sorry I didn't update.**

**Evie123: Well, I hope this update makes your day, too.**

**IamRoseDAughterofHades: Your welcome, I'm sorry it took so long.**

**PJO is the best: Thank you. I'm glad you hate Luke, that was sort of the point. I've planned out the rest of the story, but I'm still not sure if Nico is going to meet Luke. It doesn't fit into the story except for one tiny part, so if they do meet it will be very briefly. By the way, I love your name.**

**Sonyvaio: Thank you, I'm sorry it took so long. Geez, I feel like a broken record.**

**Lucy: That's okay, the fact that you reviewed makes me happy. Thanks!**

**Lucy (again): Thank you, I actually have been feeling really really bad that I took so long, but I think it's a pretty good chapter. I was having trouble getting it right. But I think I got it. Thanks again for your support.**

**SummerSpirit18: Thank yoooou! I'm sorry you had a bad school week...seven months ago. But any review is a good review!**

**AmythestSarahJackson: Again, I am so so so so so sorry that I didn't update sooner. Yeah, they're reunited, but keep reading.**

**jhonny: Thank you.**

**ChaosGamer: Pretty nice? Kidding. Thank you.**

**saltwater10: I think you may have the most random name I have ever seen. That is not a bad thing. I'm glad you love it.**

**Guest: I updated, sorry it took so long.**

**Thalia: Thank you. And thanks for the luck.**

**Mrs-diAngelo25: I'm glad you love it, I'm so sorry I took so long to update.**

**ThalicoXTratieFan4Ever: Do you still check every day? I think if someone took seven months to update, I would stop checking every day. But if you do, you may be my favorite reviewer ever!**

**Shadow-wolf-rises: Thank you. I'm going to finish this story, I swear. It might take forever, but I'm going to finish it.**

**Meeeeeee23: I will keep going, promise. What's meepo?**

**Ijusttaserdyou: Yeah, I'm not really going for sweet. But thanks anyway!**

**infinity heart star lightning: I'm going to keep updating this story until it's finished. Don't worry.**

**Blueberry Vampires: I'm sorry you had to wait so long. I hadn't thought of the possibility of Thalia being pregnant, but I guess I'm surprised you're the first person to mention it. I may have to go rethink my plot line. I updated, and don't worry, you're going to find out what happens.**

**AmandaDaughterOfHades: You're very straightforward, aren't you?**

**Me Myself and Not You: Thank you! I'm not quite sure what you meant. I think people didn't like that chapter because it's such a horrible thing to have happen, not because it's a bad chapter. But thanks anyway!**

**oOShattered StarsOo: Watch me update.**

**redwaves9: This story still is incredible, I hope. There will be more updates until I'm finished with the story. I'm not going to quit on this story.**

**Elizabeth B-Lover: Yes.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Escapist by Nightwish.**

**Chapter 11 – Escapist**

** watch?v=WNkZzaVQKdY**

It had been a month since Thalia had come back, and she still hadn't gone back to her foster mother. Amy Moore had wanted her back but Hades di Angelo had stepped up and said that Thalia was welcome at his house, and after a thorough inspection of the di Angelo household and a background check on Hades, Persephone, Bianca and Nico, the state had agreed to give Hades and Persephone legal guardianship of Thalia. Nico had been allowed to give her a bed in his room, after promising that the two would not share a bed, and the there would be no "fraternization" (to use his father's word).

Thalia hadn't gone back to school yet, and as far as anyone was concerned, her return wasn't in the near future. She had thought about taking online classes, but decided to do so a while later. Now, Nico came home with homework, and explained what he could to her. She liked it because it made her feel a little less useless, and he liked it because he had someone to help him with homework.

In the morning, Nico would wake up to the sound of his alarm clock and start getting ready for school. The alarm would wake up Thalia, too. For the first two weeks she shot out of bed and to her feet, unconsciously thinking that something was wrong, her mind still on the streets for those few seconds. But after a while it passed and when Nico's alarm went off she opened her eyes long enough to say goodbye to him, then roll over and go back to sleep.

Before Nico left the room, he would give Thalia a kiss on the forehead. Sometimes she would roll over and smile at him, then get up to have breakfast with him. Sometimes she would mumble a sleepy goodbye. And sometimes she would just hum at him, and he would try to get out of the room as quietly as possible so he wouldn't wake her up. Sometimes he would wake up with her in the bed next to him, and he would know that she'd had another nightmare. Sometimes she would scream in the middle of the night, and he would wake her up and hold her until she went back to sleep. Sometimes Bianca would come in, sometimes she wouldn't.

In the afternoon three times a week, Thalia would go to therapy. It was a group therapy, and she hated it, but she liked hearing about people who's lives were as fucked up as her own, so she went. Afterward she would go to a coffee shop down the street and drink hot chocolate until Nico got out of school and came and joined her. He would order a coffee and she would order another hot chocolate, and he would ask her why she never drank coffee, to which she would respond, "I'm not addicted to caffeine." He would laugh and tell her about his day.

They hadn't gone back to being a couple yet, but they didn't need to. They understood each other so well.

Which was why Nico was nervous the first time it happened. It was the last period on a Friday, and he was staring at the clock waiting for the bell to ring. It was 2:13 when he started getting a strange feeling in his stomach. He looked down to check his phone, ignoring his science teacher droning on and on about some particle or another and hoping that Thalia had called or texted. She hadn't.

When the bell rang at 2:21 (it was a minute late) Nico was the first one out of his seat, and the first one out the door. He ran to the parking lot and got into his car.

* * *

"Thalia?" Nico called, walking through the door.

There was no answer.

Nico took off his jacket and kicked off his shoes, then began walking upstairs, checking the living room and kitchen as he went. He called her name a few more times before reaching his bedroom (which he now thought of as theirs).

Thalia was sitting on her makeshift bed on the floor with her back to him. She was staring at something in her hands.

"Thalia?" Nico said as he took a few steps toward her.

She didn't move.

As he knelt down in frot of her, he realized that she really hadn't moved at all since he'd first seen her sitting there. Her eyes were glassy and was staring down at a picture of the two of them. It was about a week after they'd started dating, ad they were at the park together, sliding down a slide that was obviously too small for them. Bianca had taken the picture. They were laughing.

Nico put his hand on Thalia's shoulder and shook her. "Thalia!"

Her head snapped up and her eyes focused on him. She frowned. "Nico?"

"Are you okay?" he asked, moving his hand to hold her upper arm.

Thalia gave a small laugh. "What do you mean? Why aren't you in school?"

"School got out half an hour ago."

She looked confused, and glanced at the clock. "Wow. I guess I dozed off." She looked back at him and realized he still looked concerned. "I'm fine, Nico. I guess I just didn't get enough sleep last night."

Nico sat looking at her warily for a moment, then shrugged and stood up, offering his hand to Thalia and helping her up. "Come on. I've got homework and it's your turn to make dinner."

* * *

The second time it happened, Nico had decided they needed a little fun. He took Thalia out to a club, using fake Ids to get them in. Of course, that was part of the fun.

They danced for a while, laughing at the stupid pop songs that were being played. Eventually they went to an empty table ad sat down.

"Want something to drink?" Nico asked, spreading his jacket on the stool.

"Sure. Soda?"

Nico nodded. He frowned and rifled through his jacked then patted his jean pockets.

Thalia smirked. "Looking for this?" She held up his wallet.

Nico glared at her and snatched his wallet back. "I'm going to have to punish you now."

She laughed. "Really?'

"Really. There may be coffee involved."

She laughed again, and Nico couldn't help but smile. "Get me coffee and there may be tickling in your future."

He shook his head and walked off towards the bar.

Thalia looked down at her hands, the smile fading from her face. The last time she'd been in a club like this was in Queens, when she was running away. She didn't have someone like Nico then. She didn't have anyone.

She rubbed her face and folded her hands on the table. Her head felt too full, like it was stuffed with memories that wanted nothing more than her attention. She closed her eyes, feeling as though she might scream, and then…

* * *

The feeling in his stomach was back. Nico looked over at Thalia sitting at the table. She was sitting with her hands on the table, looking down.

"Kid," he heard. He turned around and realized it was his turn.

"Can I have a coke and a ginger ale?" he asked, pulling money out of his wallet.

"Lemon in the coke?"

"Lime."

The bartender turned around and poured the drinks. Nico glanced at Thalia again, then turned around and put a ten on the counter. "Keep the change," he said, picking up the drinks and walking away.

He set the drinks down on the table. "Thalia." She didn't answer. He shook her arm. "Thalia."

She blinked a few times and looked up. It took her a second to focus on him. "That was fast," she said, smiling.

"I've been gone for ten minutes." He looked at her skin. It was pale. "Are you okay?"

"I'm actually not feeling that great." She slid off the stool. "You wanna get going?"

"Sure," he replied, grabbing his jacket. "So I guess I just spent that ten dollars for nothing."

She stared at him in disbelief. "the sodas were ten dollars?"

He laughed. "No, I left the guy a tip."

Thalia smacked his arm. "Why did you do that? All he did was pour a fucking drink."

They walked out the door laughing.

* * *

The third time, they were home alone. They were watching Mulan, which Nico had recently learned was Thalia's favorite Disney movie.

The Huns were being buried by an avalanche when Nico looked down at the popcorn bowl and pouted. Thalia looked at him and laughed.

"We're out," he whined.

She laughed again and reached across him to steal the remote and pause the movie. "I'll make some more."

He watched her walk out of the room, swinging her hips. They'd gotten closer over the past two-and-a-half months, and he was hoping that someday they would go back to what they were before.

Persephone was very health conscious, so they never bought microwave popcorn. Persephone insisted that pouring oil in a pot with popcorn seeds was healthier than popping it in the microwave with the fake butter. Which was great, but to pop popcorn on the stove took forever.

Thalia put the oil and popcorn seeds in the pot and turned the stove on. She watched the blue flames flickering.

She liked Nico. She wanted to go back to before Luke, before she left, before Rachel. But she'd tried that before, and she knew that she would get hurt. And she knew that Nico might get hurt, too.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

* * *

The popcorn was burning. He could smell it.

"Thalia?" he called. She didn't answer. He got up off the couch and went into the kitchen. She was staring at the stove. Smoke was coming from the pot.

"Thalia, what the fuck?" He crossed over to her and turned off the burner, then looked at her.

"Thalia?" he said, shaking her shoulder. She didn't move. "Thalia." He kept shaking her, but she stared blankly at the pot of burned popcorn.

He didn't know what to do. She'd done this before, but she'd always woken up.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Bianca's number. The call went to voicemail. Of course, she probably had class.

He wasn't going to call his dad, no matter what, and he knew Percy was "studying" with Annabeth.

"Thalia," he said again, shaking her shoulder. His voice croaked in worry. She still didn't move.

He pulled out his phone gain and dialed 911.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"My friend isn't answering me. She's…" how could he describe this? "She's staring at the stove and her face is all blank."

"Are you sure she isn't messing with you?"

"Yes, I'm sure! She looks like she's spacing out but I can't get her to wake up."

"Has your friend experienced any trauma recently?"

Nico swallowed. "She was raped about 2 ½ months ago."

"And has this happened before?"

"Yeah, but I was able to wake her up."

He thought back to the day he'd gotten home from school and found her on the bedroom floor, the day they'd gone out to the club, and felt sick.

"Tell me your address and an ambulance will be there soon."

He rattled off his address and hung up.

He brushed the hair out of her eyes. He was scared for her, but her eyes were what broke his heart.

Instead of being electric, they were like glass – fragile and empty.

**I am so so so so so so so sorry that I didn't update sooner. I feel so bad about it. But I swear I'm not going to give up on this story. It might take a long time, but I'm going to do it. I'm not going to be one of those people who quits on my story. Even if I die. I will come back and possess someone and make them finish this. I think it was my friend who really got me to finish. She went and read my story, and then she would tell me that she hated me every time she saw me. I got the message.**

**For anyone who cares about my life, I got freshman of the month in December! I told my parents, and they both laughed and said that they would never have gotten that. My parents were problem children. I also made high honor roll 3rd quarter, with a 90 in Geometry (my worst subject). I got a job at a restaurant (I may have mentioned that before), but I think I'm going to quit because I got a summer job that starts next weekend, and I can't work during the day at an amusement park and then at a restaurant at night. My parents and I are talking about being an exchange student in France junior year, which would be amazing. And I'm taking a song writing class at school, which is so much fun.**

**Wow. I just realized how much of that note was about school. I guess I need to get out more.**

**I realized the other day that my aunt is pregnant and due next month, but when I last updated she wasn't pregnant. Well, she was, but we didn't know. Which was a serious reality check for me.**

**I am going to update as soon as possible, whether that's next week or next year. But I'll try to update sooner than next year. And summer vacation is coming up, so I'll have more time to write.**


	13. Imaginary

**Mrs-diAngelo25: Your review made my day. I had a huge smile on my face. I hope this chapter lives up to your standards!**

**SummerSpirit18: I took algebra last year in 8th grade, and it was literally the bane of my existence. At least my teacher was better than the one I have now. And I feel your pain with exams. Who the hell decided it was a good idea to make kids take huge fucking tests right before summer?**

**Radiogirl12: I meant to update sooner, but I didn't get a chance. Sorry.**

**Black Sea Mistress: I think I talk about school because I literally do nothing else with my life. My weekends are devoted to playing dumb games and lying in bed reading fanfiction for hours. I don't plan to give up on this.**

**IamAphroditeDaughterofUranus: I'm glad you like it, this chapter is slightly less realistic. I'm not going to quit on this story, promise. Thank you for the congrats, I don't know if I'm going to make high honors this quarter. I have a 77 in one of my classes. I think it's just because I was missing one of my assignments and I passed that in, but I'm still worried.**

**magicchalkdust: Thank you. The plot gets even more interesting in later chapters. Actually, it gets more interesting in this chapter.**

**infinity heart star lightning: You are officially my favorite reviewer. I'm going to make you a plaque or something. I would never give you guys anything crappy, although I don't know if that was my best chapter. I think this one is pretty good, though. Thank you. Again, you are my favorite reviewer. I'm going to go work on your plaque now.**

**ThalicoXTratieFan4Ever: I'm really bad at telling whether or not a chapter ends in a cliff hanger, but I've always wanted to write one so I'm happy now. I feel like a cliff hanger wouldn't feel final, but I always know when it's the end of the chapter, so I never think that it's a cliff hanger. Anyway, I hope this update was soon enough, and I'll try not to take forever for the next one. And I know this might be mean, but I'm glad you're sad. That means I'm writing well.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Imaginary by Evanescence.**

**Chapter 12 **–** Imaginary**

** watch?v=IQFzzIGrsWs**

She could hear them. She could hear the paramedics talking to each other, telling the others to check her heart, check her respiratory rate, check her pupils, see if they respond. She could see lights, blurry and bright, so bright they hurt her eyes. She wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn't force them shut.

She felt like she was underwater.

She heard the doors of the ambulance close, and then it went dark.

* * *

She woke up with her eyes close. That was her first thought – when had she closed her eyes?

Her second thought was that it was quiet. There were no more yelling paramedics, no more sirens. She couldn't hear anything.

She opened her eyes.

She was in a field of grass and white flowers. The sky was blue with a few white fluffy clouds. She was wearing a white dress that came down to her knees, her hair was braided, and her feet were bare.

It was beautiful.

_What the fuck?_

She reached up and tugged on the braid, trying to get it undone. It wouldn't budge.

"Get out, goddamn it!" she snarled.

Suddenly her fingers were tangled in her hair. Her braid had come undone.

She ran her fingers through her hair to make sure that that had really happened. It had.

She looked down. She was wearing _white_.

"Could I have some better clothes?" she asked tentatively.

Nothing happened.

"Jeans? T-shirt? Anything?"

The dress disappeared and was replaced by a white blouse and a pair of blue jeans.

"Ah. Gotta be specific," Thalia muttered. "Okay," she said, raising her voice a bit, "how about a black t-shirt and black jeans?"

Her clothes changed.

"Green Day converse?"

The shoes appeared on her feet.

"That's better." She looked around. "Uh…turn this grass into a parking lot." The field turned to pavement. "And make it start raining." The sky turned dark and it began to rain. Thalia threw back her head as the rain soaked into her skin. Then she thought of something.

She held out her hand. "Give me a mirror."

A full length mirror appeared in front of her, just inches from her outstretched hand.

"I need to work on that," she said to herself, leaning forward to inspect her face. As she'd expected, she had no makeup on.

"Mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow, concealer, lipstick," she said, holding out her hand.

The makeup appeared on her face. Light mascara, light eyeliner, light blue eyeshadow, concealer that matched her skin tone, and pink lipstick. She growled.

"In my hand," she snapped, looking up at the sky. The same makeup appeared in her hand.

Thalia let her head fall back.

"Just give me my makeup bag," she sighed. "And stop the rain. But keep the clouds," she added as an afterthought. The black makeup bag appeared in her hand.

After applying her makeup (heavy mascara, heavy black eyeliner, heavy dark silver eyeshadow, concealer a few shades lighter than her skin, and dark tinted lip gloss) and specifying that she didn't want it to fade or get wiped off, she sent the mirror away and looked around.

Where was she?

She was alone.

Then she realized. She was inside her own mind. And she couldn't get hurt here. No one could tell her that she was leaving, she couldn't be thrown around from home to home. She didn't have to worry about someone breaking her trust.

There was just one problem. A never-ending parking lot wasn't particularly interesting. Better than a never-ending field of flowers, but still…

She was missing something. The one place she felt at home.

"Turn this place into New York City," she said.

She felt like the world tilted for a micro second, and then she was standing in an alley in New York. She knew this place. It was just a few blocks from where she and Nico had first kissed.

She ran to that alley. She could almost see them together.

She sat in the back of the alley, rested back on her hands, and told the rain to start again.

As she threw her head back and let the rain soak her hair and face, she knew that this was what she wanted. A place where she was alone.

A place where she was safe.

* * *

Thalia's eyes were open. She was staring at the ceiling blankly. That was the worst part, that blank stare. Her eyes had always been Nico's favorite.

He sat by her bed, just looking at her. She was hooked up to two IVs, one for food and one for fluids. The doctors said that she wasn't in a coma because her brain was still active, and all they could do was wait for her to wake up. They had moved her to a mental hospital.

That was a week ago.

Nico hadn't gone to school since then. He blamed himself for Thalia's current state. The psychiatrist said that she had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from being raped, and Nico had always blamed himself for that. If he had just talked to her after Rachel had kissed him, she wouldn't have left. She wouldn't have met Luke again.

"Hey," he heard behind him. It was Bianca. She pulled up a chair and sat next to him.

"Hi."

They were quiet.

"Dad wants me to get you to go to school," she said.

He gave a half-hearted laugh. "I stopped caring what Dad said a long time ago."

"When he married Persephone."

Nico shook his head and looked down at his hands. "Before that."

Bianca put a hand on her little brother's shoulder. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Couple days," Nico said, shrugging.

"Nico…"

Nico cut her off by shrugging her hand off his shoulder. "I'm fine."

"You're obviously not." She laid her hand on his wrist. "Nico, look at me."

He looked up at her. He had dark circles under his eyes. "I can't sleep."

Bianca didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.

"Every time I close my eyes…" he sighed, turned towards the bed, scrubbed his face with the palms of his hands, and leaned forward. "I see her lying here, and I feel like I'm doing something wrong, caring about myself while she's here, like this."

Bianca stood up and held out her hand. "Come on." Nico looked at her hand, then up at her face. "I'm not taking you to school, I'm not taking you home, just come with me."

Nico took one last look at Thalia and stood up. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, then followed his sister out to her car.

They stopped at a drugstore and Bianca told Nico to stay in the car. She came out ten minutes later with half a gallon of lemonade (his favorite), a box of microwave popcorn, a bag of cheese puffs, two packages of cream-filled chocolate cupcakes ("One for each of us," she said), and all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

They drove to a tiny motel, and Bianca went at talked to the man at the front desk. She came back with a room key. She told him to grab the food and the movies as she went to the trunk and pulled something out.

When they got into the room Bianca tossed the thing from the trunk at him and told him to go get changed in the bathroom. He realized it was a pair of his pajama pants.

While he was in the bathroom, Bianca put the popcorn in the microwave. Then she crushed up two of the sleeping pills and put them in one of the glasses of lemonade.

Fifteen minutes into the first movie, Nico was asleep.

* * *

He was in New York. It was dark and raining. And empty.

He thought he was dreaming, but it felt so _real_.

It was central park. His family's apartment was across the street.

He walked to his building and took the elevator up to his floor. The apartment looked exactly the same, if neater. There was no one there.

Except he heard something from his bedroom.

He went to his bedroom. The posters were the same, everything was where it was supposed to be, but there were no clothes on the floor and the bad was made.

Thalia was lying on the bed.

"Thalia?"

She looked up at him. She was wearing his shirt. It was too big for her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

He looked around. "Well, I think I'm dreaming, but I'm not sure."

She laughed. "This is real. Well…" she frowned, "it's not actually real, it's in my head, but it's not a dream."

Nico blinked. "So, you've been here for a week? While you're in a hospital?"

"Has it been a week? I can't really tell. There's no sun here." She stepped forward. "You look awful."

"You're in the hospital. I haven't slept in three days."

Thalia was silent. She hadn't realized she was that important to him.

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter." He grabbed her wrist. "You have to come back."

She stepped backward, pulling her wrist out of his grasp and shaking her head. "I can't."

"Why?"

She looked like she was going to cry. "I can't, Nico. Please don't make me."

Nico stared at her. Then he moved forward quickly, taking her waist in his hands and kissing her.

She put her hands on his shoulders. He slid his arms around her waist and moved his hands up her back to cup her cheeks. She felt his tongue against her lips and opened her mouth.

She pulled back when she needed air and looked into his eyes.

"I need you to come back," he whispered. "I can't go back there without you. But if I'm asleep, and this is in your head, then I'll have to go. You have to come back because I can't stay."

"But you don't need me…" she started, but he shook his head. His hands had gone back down to her waist.

"I do. It's you and me. Together."

A tear rolled down her cheek and she pressed her face into his chest. She felt the vibration when he spoke again.

"It's been you and me since the alley, Thals. It's always going to be you and me."

**I love the end of this chapter. By the way, yes, you can get Green Day converse. I have a friend who has them, they have the American Idiot symbol on them. You can also get them with the Uno! design.**

**I actually finished this chapter on Thursday last week, but I couldn't upload it. I asked my parents about a year ago if I could have an account of , and they said no. They know what I do on our wi-fi, so I can't upload at my house. I have to wait until I get to the library. The library isn't open on Fridays, and I was busy on Saturday. If my parents found out that I have an account I would be in huge trouble, and my mother is a judge, so huge trouble with her is really, really, _really_** **bad. So I'm sorry that this chapter took a little longer than I think people would have liked, but that's why.**

**I have a job! I'm excited, I'm working at our local amusement park this summer. Actually, I start next weekend. I'm working in Food Services. We had orientation last weekend, and yesterday we had to learn how to do the soft-serve ice cream. We spent five minutes learning how to do the swirlies and the other twenty-five minutes we had were spent "practicing" and eating the practice cones. It was awesome. I can't wait for next week.**

**Does anyone else love Dippin' Dots as much as I do? I'm hoping to work at the Dippin' Dots stand at some point during the summer. Yes, I know I can't eat them, but I want to serve them so badly. I think it'll be so much fun.**

**If anyone has not voted on my poll I would love it if you would, please. I think I've come to a conclusion, but I'd like a bit more input.**

**I'm working on the next chapter, I'm not very far in, but I'll keep working. Review!**


	14. Lithium

**SummerSpirit18: Anyone who worships math needs a serious reality check and possibly some counseling. I'm glad you loved it all, I have a huge soft spot for angsty dramatic love, which the end totally was. I'm glad to see that someone actually reads these notes. By the way, I totally agree with the five-day-week two-day-weekend thing, but I think if I had too much more summer vacation I would go crazy. I don't know where you live, but I live in the middle of fucking nowhere with nothing to do and two siblings. They're turning ten this July (they stole my birthmonth) and they're twins. You know that thing people say about twins reading each other's minds? Yeah, it's true and very creepy. Thank you for understanding that it takes time to update.**

**Mrs-diAngelo25: Thank you, and if that chapter made you cry I think this one might. But I'm a really bad judge of that, I don't really cry at anything.**

**trustingHim17: My parents won't let me have an account because they're mean. My mom is a writer (on the side) and she thinks that I should always be trying to improve myself and FF doesn't make me improve myself. She also thinks that I'll spend too much time here. Ha. I don't spend enough time here.**

**LizziDaughterOfHades: I think you can get 21CB converse, I'm not sure. If you can that's what I want. Best album ever. My internet isn't restricted, it's just monitored. Which sucks, but it's better than restrictions.**

**RainonSaturn: Thank you. I would try that, but this is working perfectly. My parents don't know and unless my annoying little brother who is currently sitting next to me tells them they won't find out. But I'll take that into consideration.**

**Radiogirl12: I hope you didn't go insane waiting for this chapter.**

**Thalico and Percabeth FTW: I'm not sure what you mean by "it attacks me right in the feels", but thank you I think.**

**infinity heart star lightning: I'm glad I made your day. I loved that chapter, too, especially the end. It would be awesome to be able to change your life like that. I would make it just like Thalia's world. By the way, I finished your plaque but I'm not sure how to send it to you. I feel like I should ask for your email, but then I would feel like a stalker. If you have an idea, let me know. I think it's a pretty cool plaque. Even if it's more like a certificate.**

**Nico Di Angelo101: I love your username, and I'm sorry it took so long.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Lithium by Evanescence.**

**Chapter 13 **–** Lithium**

** watch?v=95Im4jkdtSE **

Nico slept for ten hours, and Bianca had finished all four movies and was dozing when he sat straight up in bed.

"Nico?" Bianca said sleepily. "What's up?"

Nico threw off the blanket and stood up. "We have to go to the hospital."

Bianca sat up, wide awake and worried. "What's wrong?" she asked, getting out of bed to put on her shoes.

"Thalia."

Bianca visibly relaxed with both shoes on and one untied. "Nico, Thalia will be there when it's not 9:30 at night."

"Fine." Nico held out his hand. "Give me the keys, I'll drive myself."

"Visiting hours are over anyway."

Nico didn't move.

Bianca hesitated. She knew the nurses wouldn't care, they knew Nico and how much he cared about Thalia, they'd let him in. And she didn't want to take him, he needed more sleep and food, but she knew if she didn't he would drive himself, even if she didn't give him the keys he would hotwire the car (which Thalia had helpfully taught him to do). And Nico was in no state to be driving.

She picked up the keys off the table and headed for the door, ignoring her untied shoelaces.

The ride to Castaldo Memorial Mental Hospital was quiet. When they got there Nico jumped out of the car and strode over to the doors. The nurses didn't try to stop him, as they'd expected, and when Bianca caught up with him he was standing outside Thalia's room watching the doctors swarm around her through the glass. The doctors were holding her down while she writhed against them.

Nico went to open the door, but Bianca grabbed him before he could. "They know what they're doing, Nico."

One of the doctors saw them waiting outside, saw the desperate look in Nico's eyes, and crossed over to poke her head out. "Are you Nico?" she asked. He nodded, and she opened the door wider and gestured for him to come in.

He crossed to the bed and took Thalia's hand. "Thalia," he said quietly.

She looked up at him and stopped struggling. The doctors backed away and almost all of them left, except for one who checked her IVs and monitors and another who smiled and began asking Thalia questions, how was she feeling, did her head hurt, was she feeling nauseous, until Nico cleared his throat and fixed the young nurse with his death glare. She left, mumbling about coming back later. The other doctor followed.

Thalia closed her eyes and sighed, then opened them again. Nico smoothed her hair back. He pulled a chair up and sat down, and continued stroking her hair.

"I thought you weren't going to wake up," he said quietly.

She smiled. "You were the one who told me to."

His hand froze. "That was real?" he asked in a harsh whisper. "I thought that was a dream."

"It was real."

His hand tightened in her hair. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "So…the kiss…"

"Was real, too," she finished for him.

He wrapped his arms around her, begin careful of her IVs. He felt his t-shirt getting wet, and tightened his grip. Her arms slid around his neck. She was so thin.

He pulled back. "You've lost a lot of weight," he said.

She laughed, wiping her eyes. "I've been living off mashed up food for a week. You give it a shot and we'll see how good you look, Mister."

He laughed. "You look beautiful anyway, babe."

She smiled again, and he realized how much he'd missed her smile. He ran his thumb along her bottom lip. She darted her tongue out to wet her lips. He leaned forward and kissed her softly.

When he pulled back her eyes were closed. She hummed softly. He chuckled. She opened her eyes and glared. He laughed harder. "It's cute," he said. Her glare intensified until she cracked a smile.

After a moment she asked, "What did the doctor say?"

Nico stopped smiling and looked at his hands. "They, uh," he glanced up and saw that Bianca was gone, "They said…after Luke…after he…" Nico waved his hand around and Thalia nodded. "They said you have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Thalia turned her head to look at the ceiling and breathed out through her mouth. "Will it go away?" she asked quietly.

He didn't want to tell her. He wanted to tell her that she was going to be okay, that she wasn't broken. But he couldn't.

He shook his head. "No."

"I thought people got Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when they went to war."

"I looked it up. Anyone can get it if they go through something traumatic. A lot of veterans get it 'cause they see their friend die or a bunch of people get blown up or something."

Thalia hummed again.

"The doctors…they told me something else, too," Nico said. Thalia looked at him questioningly. He was staring at her arms.

"Oh. That," she said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Nico sounded like he was going to cry. She didn't want to see that.

"You didn't need to know."

"That you were cutting yourself?" He grabbed her arm and pointed to the set of scars that spelled his name. "What about this, Thalia?"

She tore her arm away and stayed silent.

"Thalia…"His voice broke, but she didn't look at him. She didn't want him to cry for her. "I just don't want you to get hurt. Especially if you're hurting yourself."

She didn't say anything.

"Why?"

She looked at him. "Why what?"

"Why do you do it?"

She closed her eyes. Everything was getting harder again. That's what had caused her breakdown before. She clenched her fists.

"Thalia?" she heard, as thought through a tunnel. Faintly she felt a hand on her shoulder, and her name again.

She focused on Nico's voice saying her name until her thoughts subsided and she opened her eyes, breathing heavily.

"Hey," Nico said, and she turned to look at him. His eyes were full of concern. "You okay?"

She swallowed and nodded, then sat up.

"Have you ever felt like you're…" she paused, searching for the right word, "drowning?"

The memory of their first kiss came to his mind, but he didn't think that was what she meant. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Like…everything is going on all around you and you're sort of…caught up in the middle of it, but at the same time you're just watching it all. And everything's moving so fast and you can't always figure out what the hell's going on. And you feel like everything is on top of you and you're suffocating."

Nico didn't say anything, waiting for her to continue.

"That's why. Everything gets so confusing, and then I pick up a razor or my pocket knife or something, and everything…just…stops." She had been staring at her lap, but now she looked up at Nico. Her eyes were clouded but shining.

Nico closed his eyes. "Did you…when you…"

"Were living with you?" He opened his eyes and nodded. "I never needed to."

He nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Nico."

He rubbed his face, trying to hide the few tears running down his cheeks.

She pulled his hands away from his face. He looked awful. He hadn't gotten enough sleep, he hadn't eaten, and he was still crying, a steady stream of tears. "Nico, I'm okay," she said. "You don't need to worry about me."

He laughed harshly, standing up and pulling his hands away. "You're lying in a hospital bed, Thalia, I don't think that counts as being fine." His voice was hard and had risen.

"Why are you yelling?" Thalia demanded.

"I'm not yelling! I'm just…" He turned away from her and put his hands in his hair. "I'm just frustrated."

"Why?" Thalia asked. "I'm sorry that I have different ways of dealing with stress than you do!"

"It's not that!" He turned back to look at her. "Actually, it is. Why didn't you just talk to someone? Why didn't you talk to me? I could have helped you. When you left, and you didn't answer my calls…"

"Shut up!" she interrupted him, clapping her hands over her ears and squeezing her eyes shut. She hated yelling. Her mother had yelled at her, when she was sober and remembered she had a daughter. Some of her foster parents had yelled at her, right before they hit her. Luke had yelled at her. "Stop," she said. It came out as a sob.

She was scared, Nico realized. It made him feel disgusting. He'd scared her.

He crossed to the bed and sat down next to her and took her wrists in his hands. "God, I'm sorry, Thalia." She relaxed her arms and opened her eyes, but he didn't let go of her wrists. "You scared me so bad."

"I think it's badly," she said with a small smile.

He didn't say anything, just wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, as if she would disappear if her let go. She was shaking slightly. She took a few deep breaths.

"Ms. Grace?" a doctor said from behind them, and Nico wanted to punch him. Didn't the man understand what was going on? Bastard.

"Ms. Grace, I need to ask you a few questions," the doctor, continued, stepping forward as they pulled away from each other.

Nico looked at Thalia. "I'll be back in a while. I have to find Bianca."

Thalia nodded and turned back to the doctor.

Nico decided that the doctor would probably be in tears when he came back.

"Thalia, you have to take it."

Thalia shook her head. "I don't like it."

"I know, but the doctors said you had to take it." He hated it, too, hated how lifeless it made her seem, but the alternative was worse. Maybe she wouldn't wake up next time.

"Screw the doctors."

Nico smirked. "I think you might find that uncomfortable. Especially that one with all the hair."

She glared at him, but he could see that she was trying not to laugh. "Fine," she snapped, and grabbed the pills out of his hand. After swallowing them with a glass of water she took the bottle of pills off the counter and stormed upstairs.

When she reached the bathroom she locked the door, opened the bottle, and poured the pills down the toilet.

**Ah, Thalia. Just a warning, this story gets really depressing and might possibly disturb people in the next chapter. I'm not trying to get anyone to stop reading, but I feel like I should warn you.**

**Finals start tomorrow, you have no idea how much I am not looking forward to that. Actually you might. You probably do if you're in high school. A geometry exam and a French exam on the same day Monday. Fun.**

**I got my schedule for next year. Our school is weird, we have black days and white days that alternate. So on black days I start the day with Biology, and on white days I start the day with Trigonometry. And I have Algebra 2 on black days. And most of my classes are advanced. Curse my parents for making me smart. Sometimes I really hate it.**

**My birthday is two weeks from yesterday, I'm turning 15! I'm going to upload a new story on my birthday, it's a Thalico AU based on one of my favorite poems. And I have Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays off from work so I get my birthday and the 4th of July off. Which is awesome, I really don't want to work 4th of July at an amusement park.**

**Okay, enough about my life. I hope everyone has a great summer, I'll keep trying to upload but I'm not sure how well that will go.**

**Remember to check out my new story on July 2nd.**

**Review!**


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